Text of the petition
Addressees
- European Parliament,
- European Commission,
- Council of the European Union,
- Governments of the EU member states.
We, the undersigned citizens of the European Union and residents of its territory, express firm opposition to the creation of legal and technical solutions leading to the general or indiscriminate analysis of the private electronic communication of persons against whom no specific, justified suspicion of a crime exists.
We do not question the obligation to effectively protect children from sexual exploitation, violence and online crime. Child protection is a moral and legal duty of states, public institutions and society as a whole.
However, we do not consent to this goal being pursued in a way that weakens the right to privacy, the secrecy of communication, encryption, freedom of conscience, freedom of religion and other fundamental rights.
We believe that measures interfering with privacy should be applied to specific individuals, based on law, justified grounds, and under the oversight of an independent court.
We oppose solutions allowing for the preventive scanning of messages, photos, documents and other content sent by persons not subject to any proceedings.
We oppose the weakening of end-to-end encryption, whether directly or through mechanisms analysing content before encryption or after decryption.
We demand full protection of pastoral, medical, psychological, legal, journalistic and other communication based on a special duty of confidentiality.
We demand that measures for child protection be effective, proportionate and targeted at offenders, criminal networks and sources of unlawful material.
We demand full transparency of the legislative process, publication of technical and legal analyses, and the presentation of safeguards protecting citizens against errors of automated systems, abuse, and the future extension of the mechanism to other purposes.
We call on the relevant institutions to:
- reject solutions leading to general or indiscriminate scanning of private communication;
- guarantee the inviolability of end-to-end encryption;
- make any interference with private communication conditional on an individual legal basis and judicial oversight;
- introduce clear safeguards for communication covered by professional, religious, pastoral and other duties of confidentiality;
- ensure citizens' right to information, correction, appeal and an effective legal remedy in the event of erroneous analysis or flagging of communication;
- carry out an independent assessment of the compliance of proposed and adopted solutions with the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, the European Convention on Human Rights and the constitutions of member states;
- direct public resources towards action against offenders, criminal networks, sources of unlawful material, and effective support for victims.
Europe cannot protect its values by restricting them.
Security does not require giving up freedom.
Protecting children does not require placing the whole of society under a technical control mechanism.
By signing this petition, I demand the protection of the right to privacy, freedom of communication and the preservation of the democratic principles of the rule of law.