September 2, 2025 • 12 mins
In this episode of Woke Fallout, I break down the EU’s controversial Chat Control 2.0 law — a proposal that could scan your private messages in the name of “protection.”
I compare it to history’s worst surveillance regimes — Stalin’s USSR, the KGB, and East Germany’s Stasi — and explain why this so-called safety measure might be the biggest threat to privacy we’ve ever seen.
Is Europe on the verge of building a digital USSR? Or is it already here?
🎧 Tune in now and don’t stop questioning.
#Privacy #Surveillance #EU #FreeSpeech #DigitalRights
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
I'm Alex and this is Woke Fallout. The podcastswere nothing’s too sacred to question and nobody’s
to big to call out. I dig into the past, dragthe present into the light and drop the kind
of takes that get people talking. Welcome tothe Fallout. In this episode we're gonna discuss
Chat Control 2.0. What it is and why it's bad.Alright, let's cut to the chase. We're tearing
(00:23):
down the barrel of a proposed EU law so dystopianit makes Big Brother look quaint. it's called
Chat Control 2.0 and if it passes, your privatemessages, encrypted or not, will be read by
the state before they even leave your phone.Here's how it works. The EU wants to force
your device to scan everything you send, texts,photos, videos, before encryption kicks in.
(00:50):
This, this is known as client-side scanning.Basically, putting a government agent between
you and your messages. The rationale? They claimit's about stopping child sexual abuse material,
CSAM for short. But we all know how protectionalways turns into control. The brains behind
this nightmare is the European Commission, pushedby the Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson
(01:15):
and challenged by Denmark during its currentEU Council presidency. First floated in 2022,
this proposal has been recycled until it's readyfor primetime. Scheduled for a final vote on
October 14th, 2025. Before that, EU governmentsfinalized their positions by September 12th.
(01:37):
Now, here's where we're at. According to FightChatControl.eu,15 EU countries now support the law, 6 are
undecided and only 6 oppose it. These numbersmight have changed by the time this is published.
That 15 out of 27 is exactly the minimum neededon the country count. But remember, For the
(01:59):
lotto pass, those nations also need to representat least 65 % of the EU's population. Germany's
vote will likely tip the scales here. So, whathappens if this passes? Everything you upload
or send will be scanned. Your digital life frommemes to private apologies all gets dragged
down through AI scanners. Encryption becomesuseless. Your thoughts once locked down now
(02:24):
get peeked at. Government surveillance turnsreal time. And once that infrastructure is
deployed, it won't stay limited to your CSAM.But let's be clear, there are tools to fight
back if this law becomes an ugly reality. Youcan use Session, Briar, SimpleXChat or CWTCH.
(02:44):
Those are messengers built to resist scanning. And you can use Tor and I2P. Anonymous decentralized
browsing layers. And for anonymous serverlessfile sharing, you can use Onion Share. Links
to all of these tools will be dropped below.Bottom line, Chat control 2.0, built as a child
(03:06):
protection measure, is really a surveillanceweapon masquerading as a savior. If it passes,
we've set a dangerous precedent. Encryptiondies, privacy dies, dissident dies. So here's
the challenge. Will Europeans democracy crumble or will we fight back? The clock is ticking,
(03:29):
October 14th can't come soon enough. But wecan stop this. Not with silence, but with
noise. With action. With resistance. Becauseonce you lose your right to private conversations,
you've lost a lot more than your privacy. Now, let's go even deeper into this so-called Chat
Control 2.0. Because this isn't just a storyabout mass surveillance. It's also a story
(03:55):
about politics, power, and possible corruption.At the center of it all, Ylva Johansson, the
EU commissioner for home affairs, she's theone who drafted this law, who keeps selling
it as a child protection measure. But here'sthe kicker, Johansson has been accused of cozying
up to big tech lobbying groups and child protectionNGOs that just happen to stand to profit if
(04:19):
this thing passes. One of those NGOs is Thorn,co-founded by actor Ashton Kutcher. Yeah.
You heard it right, Hollywood has a stake inthis European surveillance scheme as well.
Thorn builds scanning tools that detect childabuse material and if chat control 2.0 becomes
a law, suddenly every tech company in Europewould need scanning software and guess who's
(04:45):
standing first in line to sell? Now, Kutcherand Thorn like to frame themselves as saviors,
protecting kids, fighting the bad guys andlook. Nobody denies the importance of child
protection. But when there's billions of euroson the table, noble causes can quickly turn
into money-making machines. Imagine the goldmineif every message app in the EU was forced to
(05:09):
run their software. And here where the corruptionsmell really kicks in. Earlier this year,
members of the European Parliament raised redflags about Johansson's ties to lobbying groups
and her secretive meetings with Thorn representatives.Meanwhile critics across Europe from privacy
NGOs to UN officials are saying the same thing.This isn't child protection. This is surveillance
(05:33):
infrastructure disguised as morality. Oncethe scars are in place governments can flip
the switch and expand the reuse. To terrorists?Disinformation? Political dissent? That's
how power creeps. And let's not forget the EuropeanData Protection Supervisor basically the EU's
top privacy watchdog. already slammed this proposalas incompatible with fundamental rights. Even
(05:58):
the council's own legal service has alreadycould break EU law. Yet, you also keep pushing.
Why? Ask yourself, who benefits if this lawpasses? Spoiler, it's not you. So, let's
connect the dots. A EU commissioner with tiesto lobbies. A Hollywood NGO co-founded by
(06:19):
Ashton Kutcher, ready to cash in. A lawwould turn Europe into the first continent
with state-mandated spyware baked into everysingle phone. That's not protection, that's
profit and power dressed up in kid gloves. If chat control 2.0 passes, we're looking at
the end of digital privacy in Europe. Everymessage, every photo, every meme becomes
(06:45):
subject to scanning. Not because you're guilty,but because everyone is treated as a suspect.
It's a surveillance state in the making backedby politicians, patted by corporations and
justified by celebrities. The EU wants you tobelieve this is about safety. But you need
to ask, safe for who? Safe for the kids? Orsafe for politicians, the tech giants and the
(07:10):
lobbyists who thrive on control. So here'sthe truth. Ylva Johansson may be the face of
chat control, but she's not the only player.Behind her? There's whole network of lobbyists,
corporations and NGOs licking their lips. And if Europeans don't wake up now, October
14th could mark the day privacy died, and theprofit won. So the question is, are we going
(07:36):
to sit back while our messages get weaponized,or are we going to push back and remind those
so-called leaders that we still have a voice?Because once they build the tools of surveillance,
they will never tear them down. History has a fun wayof repeating itself, just with Shiner tools.
Right now, the EU is pushing Chat Control 2.0,and they want us to believe it's about protecting
(08:00):
children. But let's not kid ourselves, thislaw is straight out of the playbook of history's
worst surveillance regimes. Think about Stalin'sSoviet Union, the man built a state where nobody
trusted anyone, neighbors, coworkers, evenfamily members. people were encouraged to spy
on each other, report on each other, and ifyou said the wrong thing, the knock on the
(08:24):
door came at midnight. Fear was the controlmechanism. Now fast forward to 2025 with chat
control, they don't even need neighbors snitching,your phone snitches for you. Every private
word is scanned, flagged and potentially reported.Not by human spies, but by an algorithm sitting
in your device. Stalin would have loved thistechnology. Then there's the KGB, the Soviet
(08:50):
secret police. Their entire existence was aboutmonitoring, infiltrating and controlling information.
They tapped phones, opened letters, trackeddissidents, and yet all of that took armies
of officers, paper files, endless man hours.Chat control automates the KGB's dream. One
law, one system, and suddenly the EU doesn'tneed knock on your door to read your letters
(09:15):
because they've already been reading them beforeyou hit send. And if you want a closer comparison,
let's talk about the East Germany's Stasi. Theyweren't just feared, they were everywhere.
The Stasi built one of the most comprehensivesurveillance states in history. They had files
on millions of citizens, collected through wiretaps,informants, even bugs hidden in people's walls.
(09:41):
The Stasi moto might as well have been trustno one. Now, what Chat Control does is Digitized
that nightmare instead of wiretapped in a wall.It's scanners in your pocket dude. Instead
of informants filing paper reports. It's AIflagging your memes. And the most dangerous
similarity all these regimes Stalin's USSR,the KGB, the Stasi justified their surveillance
(10:07):
in the name of protection. Protection of thestate, protection of the people, protection
from enemies. Sound familiar? Chat control 2.0is sold as a protection of children, but once
you accept the idea that mass surveillance isokay for one reason, it never stops there.
(10:28):
Stalin started with enemies of the revolution.The KGB expanded it to anyone questioning the
system. The Stasi ended up spying on basicallyeveryone, because once the machine is running,
you can't turn it off. Make no mistake, ChatControl It's not just some harmless law, it's
the first brick in building a digital USSR,a European Stasi 2.0. The difference is, this
(10:54):
time, they don't need millions of informants.They don't need the officers listening to phone
calls all day. Technology does it all automatically,at scale, in real time, that makes it even
more powerful and even more dangerous than anything Stalin or the Stasi ever dreamed of.
So the question is... Are Europeans about torepeat history just with better Gadgets or will
(11:18):
we remember what happens when governments decidethat privacy is a privilege instead of a right?
Because history shows us one thing. Once surveillanceis normalized freedom doesn't die overnight.
It dies bit by bit until one day you wake upand realize you're living in the digital USSR
and your phone has become the new Stasiofficer living in your pocket. And that my
(11:43):
friends is exactly what the Chat Control 2.0is. The past repeating itself, only this time
with algorithms and smartphones instead of informantsand typewriters. This was a woke fallout. The
place where comfort zones shatters. I'm Alex,signing off. Stay bold, stay loud and don't
stop questioning.
I'm Alex and this is Woke Fallout. The podcastswere nothing’s too sacred to question and nobody’s
to big to call out. I dig into the past, dragthe present into the light and drop the kind
of takes that get people talking. Welcome tothe Fallout. In this episode we're gonna discuss
Chat Control 2.0. What it is and why it's bad.Alright, let's cut to the chase. We're tearing
(00:23):
down the barrel of a proposed EU law so dystopianit makes Big Brother look quaint. it's called
Chat Control 2.0 and if it passes, your privatemessages, encrypted or not, will be read by
the state before they even leave your phone.Here's how it works. The EU wants to force
your device to scan everything you send, texts,photos, videos, before encryption kicks in.
(00:50):
This, this is known as client-side scanning.Basically, putting a government agent between
you and your messages. The rationale? They claimit's about stopping child sexual abuse material,
CSAM for short. But we all know how protectionalways turns into control. The brains behind
this nightmare is the European Commission, pushedby the Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson
(01:15):
and challenged by Denmark during its currentEU Council presidency. First floated in 2022,
this proposal has been recycled until it's readyfor primetime. Scheduled for a final vote on
October 14th, 2025. Before that, EU governmentsfinalized their positions by September 12th.
(01:37):
Now, here's where we're at. According to FightChatControl.eu,15 EU countries now support the law, 6 are
undecided and only 6 oppose it. These numbersmight have changed by the time this is published.
That 15 out of 27 is exactly the minimum neededon the country count. But remember, For the
(01:59):
lotto pass, those nations also need to representat least 65 % of the EU's population. Germany's
vote will likely tip the scales here. So, whathappens if this passes? Everything you upload
or send will be scanned. Your digital life frommemes to private apologies all gets dragged
down through AI scanners. Encryption becomesuseless. Your thoughts once locked down now
(02:24):
get peeked at. Government surveillance turnsreal time. And once that infrastructure is
deployed, it won't stay limited to your CSAM.But let's be clear, there are tools to fight
back if this law becomes an ugly reality. Youcan use Session, Briar, SimpleXChat or CWTCH.
(02:44):
Those are messengers built to resist scanning. And you can use Tor and I2P. Anonymous decentralized
browsing layers. And for anonymous serverlessfile sharing, you can use Onion Share. Links
to all of these tools will be dropped below.Bottom line, Chat control 2.0, built as a child
(03:06):
protection measure, is really a surveillanceweapon masquerading as a savior. If it passes,
we've set a dangerous precedent. Encryptiondies, privacy dies, dissident dies. So here's
the challenge. Will Europeans democracy crumble or will we fight back? The clock is ticking,
(03:29):
October 14th can't come soon enough. But wecan stop this. Not with silence, but with
noise. With action. With resistance. Becauseonce you lose your right to private conversations,
you've lost a lot more than your privacy. Now, let's go even deeper into this so-called Chat
Control 2.0. Because this isn't just a storyabout mass surveillance. It's also a story
(03:55):
about politics, power, and possible corruption.At the center of it all, Ylva Johansson, the
EU commissioner for home affairs, she's theone who drafted this law, who keeps selling
it as a child protection measure. But here'sthe kicker, Johansson has been accused of cozying
up to big tech lobbying groups and child protectionNGOs that just happen to stand to profit if
(04:19):
this thing passes. One of those NGOs is Thorn,co-founded by actor Ashton Kutcher. Yeah.
You heard it right, Hollywood has a stake inthis European surveillance scheme as well.
Thorn builds scanning tools that detect childabuse material and if chat control 2.0 becomes
a law, suddenly every tech company in Europewould need scanning software and guess who's
(04:45):
standing first in line to sell? Now, Kutcherand Thorn like to frame themselves as saviors,
protecting kids, fighting the bad guys andlook. Nobody denies the importance of child
protection. But when there's billions of euroson the table, noble causes can quickly turn
into money-making machines. Imagine the goldmineif every message app in the EU was forced to
(05:09):
run their software. And here where the corruptionsmell really kicks in. Earlier this year,
members of the European Parliament raised redflags about Johansson's ties to lobbying groups
and her secretive meetings with Thorn representatives.Meanwhile critics across Europe from privacy
NGOs to UN officials are saying the same thing.This isn't child protection. This is surveillance
(05:33):
infrastructure disguised as morality. Oncethe scars are in place governments can flip
the switch and expand the reuse. To terrorists?Disinformation? Political dissent? That's
how power creeps. And let's not forget the EuropeanData Protection Supervisor basically the EU's
top privacy watchdog. already slammed this proposalas incompatible with fundamental rights. Even
(05:58):
the council's own legal service has alreadycould break EU law. Yet, you also keep pushing.
Why? Ask yourself, who benefits if this lawpasses? Spoiler, it's not you. So, let's
connect the dots. A EU commissioner with tiesto lobbies. A Hollywood NGO co-founded by
(06:19):
Ashton Kutcher, ready to cash in. A lawwould turn Europe into the first continent
with state-mandated spyware baked into everysingle phone. That's not protection, that's
profit and power dressed up in kid gloves. If chat control 2.0 passes, we're looking at
the end of digital privacy in Europe. Everymessage, every photo, every meme becomes
(06:45):
subject to scanning. Not because you're guilty,but because everyone is treated as a suspect.
It's a surveillance state in the making backedby politicians, patted by corporations and
justified by celebrities. The EU wants you tobelieve this is about safety. But you need
to ask, safe for who? Safe for the kids? Orsafe for politicians, the tech giants and the
(07:10):
lobbyists who thrive on control. So here'sthe truth. Ylva Johansson may be the face of
chat control, but she's not the only player.Behind her? There's whole network of lobbyists,
corporations and NGOs licking their lips. And if Europeans don't wake up now, October
14th could mark the day privacy died, and theprofit won. So the question is, are we going
(07:36):
to sit back while our messages get weaponized,or are we going to push back and remind those
so-called leaders that we still have a voice?Because once they build the tools of surveillance,
they will never tear them down. History has a fun wayof repeating itself, just with Shiner tools.
Right now, the EU is pushing Chat Control 2.0,and they want us to believe it's about protecting
(08:00):
children. But let's not kid ourselves, thislaw is straight out of the playbook of history's
worst surveillance regimes. Think about Stalin'sSoviet Union, the man built a state where nobody
trusted anyone, neighbors, coworkers, evenfamily members. people were encouraged to spy
on each other, report on each other, and ifyou said the wrong thing, the knock on the
(08:24):
door came at midnight. Fear was the controlmechanism. Now fast forward to 2025 with chat
control, they don't even need neighbors snitching,your phone snitches for you. Every private
word is scanned, flagged and potentially reported.Not by human spies, but by an algorithm sitting
in your device. Stalin would have loved thistechnology. Then there's the KGB, the Soviet
(08:50):
secret police. Their entire existence was aboutmonitoring, infiltrating and controlling information.
They tapped phones, opened letters, trackeddissidents, and yet all of that took armies
of officers, paper files, endless man hours.Chat control automates the KGB's dream. One
law, one system, and suddenly the EU doesn'tneed knock on your door to read your letters
(09:15):
because they've already been reading them beforeyou hit send. And if you want a closer comparison,
let's talk about the East Germany's Stasi. Theyweren't just feared, they were everywhere.
The Stasi built one of the most comprehensivesurveillance states in history. They had files
on millions of citizens, collected through wiretaps,informants, even bugs hidden in people's walls.
(09:41):
The Stasi moto might as well have been trustno one. Now, what Chat Control does is Digitized
that nightmare instead of wiretapped in a wall.It's scanners in your pocket dude. Instead
of informants filing paper reports. It's AIflagging your memes. And the most dangerous
similarity all these regimes Stalin's USSR,the KGB, the Stasi justified their surveillance
(10:07):
in the name of protection. Protection of thestate, protection of the people, protection
from enemies. Sound familiar? Chat control 2.0is sold as a protection of children, but once
you accept the idea that mass surveillance isokay for one reason, it never stops there.
(10:28):
Stalin started with enemies of the revolution.The KGB expanded it to anyone questioning the
system. The Stasi ended up spying on basicallyeveryone, because once the machine is running,
you can't turn it off. Make no mistake, ChatControl It's not just some harmless law, it's
the first brick in building a digital USSR,a European Stasi 2.0. The difference is, this
(10:54):
time, they don't need millions of informants.They don't need the officers listening to phone
calls all day. Technology does it all automatically,at scale, in real time, that makes it even
more powerful and even more dangerous than anything Stalin or the Stasi ever dreamed of.
So the question is... Are Europeans about torepeat history just with better Gadgets or will
(11:18):
we remember what happens when governments decidethat privacy is a privilege instead of a right?
Because history shows us one thing. Once surveillanceis normalized freedom doesn't die overnight.
It dies bit by bit until one day you wake upand realize you're living in the digital USSR
and your phone has become the new Stasiofficer living in your pocket. And that my
(11:43):
friends is exactly what the Chat Control 2.0is. The past repeating itself, only this time
with algorithms and smartphones instead of informantsand typewriters. This was a woke fallout. The
place where comfort zones shatters. I'm Alex,signing off. Stay bold, stay loud and don't
stop questioning.
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