Thread by @alexanderhanff

Today (now) LIBE Group in the EU Parliament will debate a proposed law which will require total surveillance of ALL online communications and messenger services of ALL EU persons.

#privacy #childrape #surveillance #ethics #law #trust #confidentiality

As a survivor of child sexual and physical abuse, I would never have had the confidence to tell my story if I didn’t have access to confidential communications channels.

It took 25 years for the Police to finally investigate and prosecute my case, leading to multiple convictions for sexual assaults against myself and 27 other boys at my boarding school.

Without access to confidential communications channels, 28 victims would never have seen justice and 3 serial child rapists would have been able to continue their violence on others.

Without access to confidential communications channels, our dignity, our lives, our relationships would have continued to be subjected to the violence through our memories.

This proposal will make it more difficult for millions of children to seek support, tell their stories and secure justice.

This proposal will harm research, prevent support workers from engaging with victims in a safe and confidential environment and destroy families and lives due to staggeringly high false positive rates.

This proposal will harm children not protect them.

This proposal will push rapists underground to private networks, making them more difficult to find and bring to justice.

As a survivor I have worked with law enforcement tracking down child rapist such as those in the Orchid Club who were brought down due to my work with law enforcement across the globe.

I have worked with other survivors helping them manage their trauma, in confidential environments this proposal seeks to destroy.

I nearly died 2 times as a result of my trauma and for the longest time wanted only to leave this world. I still don’t sleep, I still suffer from depression and child rape destroyed my childhood and my family.

For most of my life I have been alone - no support from my government, no justice for 25 years.

Privacy is something I have dedicated my life’s work to and I am well known throughout this Parliament and the other institutions of the EU for that work which led to sweeping changes to EU law protecting the Article 7 and 8 Rights under the Charter.

I beg you as a survivor, as a person and as a privacy and technology expert not to vote in favor of this proposal- the damage it will cause will be severe, children will die, self harm and spend their lives in misery, alone and without the trust to seek help.

We deserve more, we demand more, you owe us so much more!

Invest in research to find out why people rape children to stem or stop the problem at the source. This proposal is just a thumb in the hole in the dam - eventually that dam will fail and the weight of the bodies it held, will come crashing down.

Watch the Parliament session here:
multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/de/webstreamin…

Write to your MEPs and tell them NO to #chatcontrol

#privacy #childrape #surveillance #ethics #trust #csam #childsexualabuse #childphysicalabuse #confidentiality #notinmyname

Cc @EP_Justice - you are being misled by the EU Commission with this presentation. The numbers are false, the claims that detection will stop are false and the privacy safeguards are false.

@EP_Justice @EP_Justice again you’re being misled - the only thing that will stop with the sunset of the derogation is ILLEGAL, mass surveillance of ALL online communications. Platforms storing CSAM will still be able to detect it in their storage platforms rather than private communications

These claims are not just misleading, I would say they are outright lies aimed to create a knee jerk reaction to a problem that technology will NEVER solve

Instead of illegal surveillance of ALL EU citizens invest money in research into why abuse happens and how to prevent it at the source. The level of research funds for this issue is probably lower than the coffee budget of the EU Parliament

@EP_Justice to my knowledge the Politicians have NOT sought any feedback from the most important people in this debate - the victims and survivors of child sexual abuse. We are the ones who were raped, why are you not asking us how we feel?

@EP_Justice - The Commission talks about prevention - there is NO prevention the technology only finds the results of abuse - it does nothing to stop the abuse. The abuse has already occurred!

Further, it is based on existing hashes - so it only detects what is already known - that is NOT prevention.

Any claims of prevention are demonstrably false.

Prevention is stopping the rape, not looking at one small part of the aftermath!

#chatcontrol #notinmyname

@SophieintVeld We have known each other for a long time, we have worked on privacy issues together and I love your work. Thank you so much for such strong words on this today. Thank you.

@EP_Justice The Commission talks about supporting children but how? There is little to no support for victims - even though my case led to 3 convictions and uncovered 28 campaigns of abuse - I have never received ANY support - literally nothing, not even a “How are you coping?”

There is NO SUPPORT for victims, just false narratives and empty words - no attempt with any fortitude to end abuse - just sweep away the evidence so it doesn’t have to be talked about…

Shame on YOU! EU Commission, shame on you!

#chatcontrol #privacy #surveillance