Vitalik Buterin, one of the founders of Ethereum, has spoken out against the European Union’s new “Chat Control” law. He believes it could harm people’s privacy in online conversations.

On Saturday, Buterin shared a post on X where he expressed his disagreement with rules that would make tech companies check private messages for illegal content. “We all have the right to privacy and security for our private messages,” Buterin said.

“You can’t make society safer by making people feel unsafe,” he wrote. He said that backdoors designed for police are “always hackable” and put everyone’s safety at risk.

The post answered a message from entrepreneur Pieter Levels, who asked Europeans to say no to the regulation. He warned that it might let officials see people’s private messages.

Vitalik points out the double standards of lawmakers

Buterin pointed out that some lawmakers are being hypocritical because they want to avoid the same Chat Control laws they are making for others. He said, “It’s significant that government officials want to get out of the law they created for everyone else,” and he shared a report from EU Reporter.

According to the report, a copy of a proposed law that was leaked shows that interior ministers want to exclude themselves, as well as intelligence, police, and military workers, from the rules about monitoring private chats.

Fifteen EU countries are in favor of the proposal, but they don’t have enough population support to pass it. They need backing from 65% of the population. Germany, which has the important vote, hasn’t made a final decision yet. If Germany votes yes, the law will probably go through; if it doesn’t vote or votes no, the law is likely to fail.

The EU’s Chat Control might lead people to use Web3

Supporters of cryptocurrency, like Diode CEO Hans Rempel and Brickken’s Elisenda Fabrega, have said that this plan might lead users to choose decentralized Web3 platforms that prioritize privacy.

Rempel said that Web3’s idea of “if you don’t control the keys, you don’t control the data” is appealing to users who are frustrated with central systems. Fabrega warned that this change could break apart the EU digital market and lessen its power over global privacy rules.
Fabrega also mentioned that the law goes against Articles 7 and 8 of the EU Charter, which safeguard private messages and personal information. Rempel said that giving governments backdoor access could be very unsafe for cybersecurity because they have a history of losing data.