Europe's Digital Sovereignty Paradox – "Chat Control" Update

Summary

October 14th was supposed to be the day the European Council voted to mandate scanning of all private communications, encrypted or not.The vote was pulled at the last minute.Germany withdrew support, creating a blocking minority that blocked the Danish Presidency's hope to get the text approved. Denmark still hopes to push this through by the end of its EU presidency in December. I personally would like to be optimistic and think that the tech community managed to raise enough concerns with EU policymakers.Hundreds of European companies such as Proton, NordVPN, Tuta, Murena, Element, ProcessOne voiced their concerns about Chat Control. These companies are building the European alternatives we need for digital sovereignty. They offer what the EuroStack coalition is demanding: local infrastructure, values-driven technology, independence from US hyperscalers.And EU policy trying to force them to break the very protocols that make sovereignty possible does not seem like the wisest strategic move.What policymakers are missing is that encryption is a built-in foundation of most communication protocols. You cannot turn it on or off depending on what is considered right in a given place at a given moment. You either have secure end-to-end encryption or you don't. There is no "just this once" exception that doesn't become an exploitable technical or administrative vulnerability.When Denmark's Justice Minister suggested that the "completely misguided perception" is that everyone has a right to secure communication, he revealed the fundamental gap: policymakers who don't understand that secure infrastructure is the core of today's Internet backbone, not just for the pure sake of democracy (I swear it hurts to have to explain this), but also for the existential security of European countries.Today, European countries are prioritizing defense spending while missing that digital infrastructure is the battlefield. Networks allow us to control drones, spread misinformation, they ar...