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Comment by SilverElfin | Hacker News Reader

Governments don’t work for people. Yet they use terms like democracy all the time. The repeated attempts at chat control are so blatantly anti civil rights but also disrespectful of democratic principles. Why do EU citizens tolerate this? Are they okay being made a fool of or is this just not an issue for them after all?

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How do you suggest people be intolerant? Essentially all the parties work toward these goals, so voting is ineffective. Speech is (more-or-less) allowed until it turns into strident protest, at which point the water cannons are brought out and a few token agitators are prosecuted for their instigation. I wouldn't want to call this tyranny, because I might get a knock on the door.

Why not emphasize the issue of civil rights and make it disqualifying as a single issue for any politician? At least online it feels like people care about chat control a lot but when it comes to voting, the type of dystopian control EU bureaucrats are building isn’t in anyone’s mind. So politicians can get away with supporting those policies since there isn’t a consequence for them.

"Online people" who care about this sort of thing are a microscopic subset of the voting base and do not represent what most people are aware of, understand, or care about. I live in Ireland, and you know what everyone in town and around my area talks about? Donald Trump. When I try and raise issues of national or European politics, I get whatabouted into more American politics. The bread is sweeter (it's the corn syrup) and the circuses more outrageous.

Well, we don't tolerate it, that's why it hasn't passed yet. They keep trying, though.

The power of the European Commission to propose legislation needs to be curbed or removed entirely. Executive agencies shouldn’t be writing legislation. It’s far to easy for them to propose laws that benefit the the European Commission, rather than benefiting Europeans.

You're blaming the wrong people and making this worse.

The article is literally about the EU Council, the elected heads of states of all the EU nations. The elected leaders of the EU nations really, really want chat control. The Commission has nothing to do with this.

The Council might be involved, but it’s the commission that drafts legislation, and they’re unelected.

Either way, drafting legislation should be the responsibility of the legislature (i.e the parliament), not the commission or the council.

Because they don't understand this is mass surveillance. I bet not even some of the politicians do, or they don't grasp the full consequence. They see the child narrative and fall for it.

> Why do EU citizens tolerate this?

Some EU citizens want it? You'd be surprised on the views of some people.

I wonder if they would still be for it if they weren't lied to. No one would be for this if they would clearly state they want to scan all of your messages, but they say "We want to protect the children" instead.

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