This would probably fit in better in the technology community and I’m pretty sure it has been shared already, so sorry for the duplicate, especially since it was already on the [email protected] and and [email protected] communities.
I found it interesting because just a few months ago The Linux Experiment made a video that I shared and, while that video was talking about laws in France that I believed at the time would lead to eventually banning encrypted apps it now appears that the possibility of that is now looming over us…moreso after what happened in Arras.
Edit (in French) https://www.numerama.com/tech/1533652-attaque-a-arras-darmanin-vise-les-messageries-et-leur-chiffrement.html
Yes, the attack in Arras is being used as a reason to consider banning encrypted chat apps like Signal and WhatsApp.
How can this be enforced?
It can’t be enforced outside of their borders. And it’s barely enforceable inside of them. Matrix chat will probably get more popular. Proton, and other private email services, will still exist. This seems like people who don’t understand tech trying to regulate it.
ETA: if you think this is enforceable, look at how common piracy still is despite it being illegal in most places. VPNs, onion routing, alternative DNS, etc.
The only effect a law like this would have on me is me using the stuff more and probably contributing it to it.
There’s many corporations with offices in the EU that would face fines.
Obviously that doesn’t mean people wouldn’t be able to use e2ee services without backdoors, but this law would still result in degraded privacy for millions of people.
By fining corporations that dont install backdoors in their software
The (Tory) UK government tried this exact same thing, accepted that it wasn’t possible to enforce, but pushed the law through anyway earlier this year.