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Finland rejects chat control proposal: Finds it unconstitutional (valtioneuvosto.fi)

submitted 3 months ago by cabbage@piefed.social to c/Europe@europe.pub

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Finland has now joined the ranks of Austria, Poland and the Netherlands in rejecting chat control, the proposed EU law that would threaten encrypted messaging and eliminate privacy in private communications.

The Ministerial Committee on EU Affairs elaborated on its previous positions and noted that Finland still considers it very important to establish an EU-level legal framework to improve the detection, reporting and elimination of sexual violence against children in the EU. However, Finland cannot support the most recent compromise proposal because it contains a detection order that has been found problematic from a constitutional standpoint.

We need more resistance against this incredibly dangerous law - we cannot allow totalitarianism to creep in through a phony "save the children" narrative. If they wanted to save the children they would start with what is happening in the open at Instagram and Tiktok, not by attacking secure channels of communication.

https://chatcontrol.eu/ contains some information about how you can pressure your representatives to oppose this law.

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[+] porzellanladen@mastodon.de -8 points 3 months ago (1 children)

@cabbage they're probably right, but then again EU law supersedes national constitutions, so the argument is slightly meaningless 🙁 still good news someone in power is rejecting it 👍

[–] cabbage@piefed.social 18 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Nonono - the law hasn't been passed yet! It's just a proposal from the Danish presidency at the moment. In order to become law it needs to be accepted by the Council - that is, member state governments - and the European Parliament. So the Finish rejection here matters a great deal, as if enough governments vote against it will not make it into EU law.

So it is super important still to pressure and educate politicians on this issue! Nothing is lost yet. It was rejected in its previous form, we can get it rejected again. :)

[–] porzellanladen@mastodon.de -2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

@cabbage of course, I understand that

[–] cabbage@piefed.social 8 points 3 months ago (1 children)

So the argument is not meaningless? Of course Finland would not vote in favour of a law that they openly consider to be of questionable constitutionality. It does not veto the other member states from voting in favour, and if they do Finland would still be subject to the law, but it is nevertheless far from a meaningless argument.

[–] porzellanladen@mastodon.de -2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

@cabbage it would be better to argue it violates EU treaties/charters than only national constitutions

[–] cabbage@piefed.social 3 points 3 months ago

I would be surprised if people weren't already thinking about that. If it passes I wouldn't be surprised if we ended up with an annulment action before the Court of Justice. Hopefully it won't come to that. :)