Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has criticized the European Union’s proposed
“Chat Control” legislation, warning that it threatens the right to privacy in
digital communications.
Personal Opinion
In today’s political climate, it is routine for governments to prioritize the interests of supranationals - like the FATF and OECD - over those of their citizens. The EU’s proposed Chat Control regulation is yet another manifestation of this trend; an attempt to centralize oversight under the guise of child protection, while simultaneously eroding online and offline privacy.
Vitalik Buterin is right to criticize the proposal, warning that mandatory scanning of private messages - even on encrypted platforms - would introduce systemic vulnerabilities. “You cannot make society secure by making people insecure,” he wrote, highlighting the dangers of backdoors that will inevitably be hacked. What is the point of encryption if someone you’ve never known or met holds the master keys to read or distribute your personal messages?
As with previous emergency measures - think COVID - restrictions are often imposed broadly, while exemptions are quietly carved out for political elites, intelligence agencies, and approved media outlets. A leaked EU report revealed that several interior ministers sought to exempt themselves and their departments from the surveillance provisions. This hypocrisy reveals a disturbing truth: the surveillance state is not designed to protect citizens - it exists to control them. When you know others are watching and listening, you begin to self-censor. And that’s what everyone does. What you read becomes nothing like the truth.
No government should be entrusted with the unchecked power to monitor financial activity or private speech. Fear becomes the currency of control. And as history has shown, when you step out of the cave, the shadows don’t just follow, they hunt.
