After Germany blocked the October vote, Europe’s surveillance proposal didn’t die—it evolved. Denmark’s November compromise claims to abandon mandatory scanning while preserving identical outcomes through legal sleight of hand. The repackaging reveals the essential dynamic: when democratic opposition defeats mass surveillance, proponents don’t accept defeat. They redraft terminology, shift articles, and reintroduce the same architecture under different labels until resistance exhausts itself.
The pattern is documented across five iterations. Sweden’s January-June 2023 presidency failed. Belgium couldn’t secure passage in June 2024. Hungary’s presidency ended December 31, 2024 without achieving agreement. Poland’s presidency collapsed in January-June 2025 when 16 pro-scanning states refused meaningful compromise. Each defeat produced not withdrawal but repackaging: “chat control” became “child sexual abuse regulation,” “scanning” became “detection orders,” “mandatory” became “risk mitigation,” and “breaking encryption” became “lawful access.” October’s blocking minority forced Denmark’s hand, but rather than accepting defeat, Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard withdrew the proposal on October 31 and immediately began drafting version 2.0.
The Loophole Disguised as Compromise
Denmark’s November 5 revised text removes Articles 7-11’s “detection orders”—the language mandating scanning. Privacy advocates initially celebrated. Then legal experts read Article 4. The provision requires all communication providers implement “all appropriate risk mitigation measures” to prevent abuse on their platforms. Services classified as “high risk”—essentially any platform offering encryption, anonymity, or real-time communications—face obligations that experts argue constitute mandatory scanning without using the word “mandatory.”
Continue reading this article - https://restmedia.st/the-voluntary-trap-how-denmark-repackaged-chat-control-after-defeat/
It has been often said but I‘ll say it again: This is why you should be penalized as a politician and eventually as a country when you keep making essentially the same proposal in the EU over and over again and keep losing in a vote or worse get shut down by EU courts. We can‘t afford to keep discussing and voting on the same idea over and over and over again.
Votes about mass surveillance are becoming way too frequent and halt progress that needs to be made in so many other departments. It‘s parliament trolling at this point and wasting everyone’s time.
I have the feeling the danish MEPs have sold out to trump and Xi