Watch: Privacy At Stake – The Maltese Students Fighting EU’s ‘Chat Control’ Proposal
A group of Maltese students have launched a campaign against the EU’s ‘chat control’ proposal out of concern that it could seriously impact the right to privacy.
The proposal will allow the scanning of all private digital communications, including encrypted ones, as a means of preventing and combating child sexual abuse.
However, David Briguglio Brown and Nathan Aquilina from the newly-formed Students For Liberty Malta, warned that this goes directly agains the fundamental EU right to privacy.
“We’re not talking about people wanting privacy because they want to commit certain crimes,” Aquilina said.
“People want privacy because maybe they want to share certain secrets and send certain private messages. This proposal is not something which would benefit the average human.”
Briguglio Brown pointed out that over 500 scientists, researchers and cryptographers have also warned the EU that the proposal would be ineffective as technology isn’t advanced enough to eliminate the possibility of false detection.
“This essentially means that people will get in legal trouble for something that could be taken out of context, for false detection,” he said.
“The technology isn’t advanced enough, there isn’t the aspect of security and it puts all our rights in jeopardy. Privacy will be hindered without any guarantee of security.”
He also warned that, if the EU passes this proposal, other countries might use it as justification to expand surveillance on their own people.
Students for Liberty Malta have launched a parliamentary petition against this bill and have collected 1,400 signatures as of the time of writing.
The students said that while many people they approached so far weren’t informed about this EU proposal, practically everyone they spoke to has signed this petition.
“The youths are engaged and they want to fight for our future, but unfortunately some people might not be that well informed” Aquilina said.
“As Maltese people, we must keep on informing these youths and make sure to involve them as much as possible.”
Malta’s MEPs have spoken out against this bill, something the students are grateful for. However, they urged them to ramp up their efforts and pressure the government and their European colleagues to take a clearer stance against it.
READ NEXT: MEA Warns Alex Borg's Four-Day Work Week Proposal Will Lead To More Foreign Workers
