The big moment of the year will come on October 14. Just one vote can potentially change private message monitoring online. Under the proposed regulation, Chat Control may see all digital communication scanned for child abuse content; however, privacy advocates and some member states are opposing it. Three member states-Austria, the Netherlands, and Poland-are openly opposed, insisting that it is a gross overreach that would expose every citizen’s private chats in public.
Okay, so what does this law do? The Chat Control proposal wants tech companies to scan messages, photos, and video for illegal content that traverse WhatsApp, Signal, and Telegram, among others. While fighting child exploitation is the claim, opponents of the law view it as bordering on mass surveillance. And gamers are particularly wary since the encrypted chat they use is their primary communication tool, including for inside joking, in-game coordination, and setting up streaming sessions.
The debate is heating up online with gaming communities and privacy activists clashing with each other on whether this law is a necessary evil or just plain evil. Several have gone as far as denouncing the law in rowdy language; a Twitter user named @PhantomwolfReal described it as “a fucking privacy risk” that they “never imagined [to] come from the EU.” On the other side, users such as @Thepikagamer6 are urging for workarounds and sharing petitions already, warning that VPNs will be in the spotlight next.
Now here comes the kicker: even if the law passes through the Council of the EU, it still has to skirt heavy opposition in the European Parliament. With Germany being unsure even, the vote will go one way or another. Players, meanwhile, ask themselves: If private chats are no longer a safe space, what’s left to be stolen? Voice communication for multiplayer games? Discord DMs? The line that once separated safety and surveillance has now very much become blurred.
Ones thing is for sure: this is a gaming issue as much as it is any political issue. The idea of Big Brother just standing behind your shoulder is forever a matter of concern, whether you are coordinating a raid in Destiny 2 or just chilling with your buddies. The vote is soon, and gamers need to have their voices heard before they lose any sense of ownership over their messages.
Stay very keen; if Chat Control goes through, the only thing to get scanned more than a loot drop will be your DMs.
