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The European Commission lost the Chat Control 2.0 battle over access to end-to-end encrypted data. By the summer 2026, they will be back with their next attempt: Going Dark. This time some EU member states want to include VPN services.
The Going Dark initiative, or ProtectEU as the Commission now calls it, wants to “enable law enforcement authorities to access encrypted data in a lawful manner”. This is a Chat Control 3.0 attempt.
The EU Commission and several member states are also looking for new rules on data retention. In a new ”Presidency outcome paper”, the member states discuss metadata retention: which websites you visit, and who is communicating with whom, when and how often. The ambition is “to have the broadest possible scope of application” and this time some member states also want the proposal to include VPN services.
Mullvad has spent the last three years opposing Chat Control 2.0 – even though the law would have affected our business positively.
We will continue to fight Going Dark with full force, regardless of whether VPNs are included or not. If VPNs are included, and if Going Dark becomes law, we will never spy on our customers no matter what.
@mullvadnet So by 2030 we will have to fight chat control 8.0?
@cina @mullvadnet as long as I breathe
@cina @mullvadnet That’s how the EC works!
@cina @mullvadnet Ha! At the current rate, 8.0 will land somewhere next month.
Yes... this is a bug of the western representative democratic system and the EU project. It strives for extreme centralization, and as long as this continues unchecked, chat control and the domination of the individual will continue.
Only extreme decentralization of power will be able to once and for all stop these kind of perversions.
I think we'll probably need a world war or so, to clean out the latent aggression and authoritarianism that has taken root in the minds of our politicians since corona.
@mullvadnet Though this is money in your pocket, and some people do not need your service, it sounds to me like a more honest business than most.
It is better to set up your own VPN on a VPS, but many people won't get that involved, so yes, you have a market.
Saw your ad on German tv. Great to see you guys spreading awareness. (Though a bit weird to air a English language ad on German tv...)
@mullvadnet Hey Mullvad. How will you make sure to not spy on us as customers if the laws are here? Because everyone could claim that but how will you do it?
@zahox >Hey Mullvad. How will you make sure to not spy on us as customers
Because they have literally no idea who you are.
@apicultor @mullvadnet I know but they know other stuff like every VPN.
@mullvadnet Boy are y'all getting clowned by politicians who clearly want you to do all kinds of nonsense.
I assume it's digital ID you want gone as well, despite it being quite impossible to impose.
@mullvadnet this is what doing the right thing means in real life.
Thank you
@mullvadnet This means data is more easily hackable. :(
@mullvadnet cyn we just finally get #ECHR to tell @EUCommission to stop #cyberfascist attacks on #HumanRight or get dissolved?
- In fact, if @Bundesregierung and others don't make it clear that such attacks on #HumanRights & #CivilRights won't be accepted and threaten to leave the #EU if they mandate it then they might just give up on #democracy!
@mullvadnet It doesn't matter how often we'll win. They need to win just one time.
@mullvadnet I seriously start to hate @EUCommission for things like this. And it seems like the EU is slowly breaking down.
Keep the good job up @Mullvad VPN so far you did not deceived me.
@mullvadnet
I think this is related:
https://mastodon.social/@nnmfnwl7/115747040759992883
Service account registration by mobile number, email or password is out of date and dangerous, switching all into private key represented as seed phase(24 words) + password stored and signed by hardware devices and key derivations would fix most of possible security issues.
This technique would also prevent any future attempts to surveillance society by chat control or other related nonsense's made by politicians who have no clue about cryptography and internet security at all.
@mullvadnet The UK is considering outlawing VPNs and so are some state legislatures in America. The coordinated timing of all this is suspicious and almost certainly not coincidental.
lychee @mullvadnet
This feels like one of those dialogs with buttons "yes" and "not now"
@mullvadnet what are they smoking
@ariarhythmic@ohai.social @mullvadnet@mastodon.online They're not smoking anything. They're doing exactly what they see as in their interest. That being the interest of the state.
Ah shit, here we go again
@mullvadnet
"enable law enforcement authorities to access encrypted data in a lawful manner"
What a wild way to say "it's currently illegal for us to spy on you like this, but we want to change that."
@jargoggles @mullvadnet For whatever "lawful" means.
@mullvadnet just like in russia, hey. i ain't liking these tendencies in the world, wonder whether they'll succeed, though.
@mullvadnet ffs, it's getting old.
There are a gazillion other policies to ruin our lives, they could at least bring something new.
@mullvadnet what can I say. "Going Dark" is an appropriate name 
@mullvadnet i want names who is wasting my tax money
@mullvadnet This is actually so sad, why is the EU focusing on spying on its own citizens instead of fighting against outside threats like Russia, China, and the US?
@hexanol The state, by definition, fears one thing above all else: its own citizens.
@hexanol @mullvadnet Because governments are enemies of the people?
Q: What's the difference between a highwayman and a Western government?
A: A highwayman doesn't prevent you from buying an antibiotic ointment when your eczema gets infected and you are afraid it turns into sepsis and you die.
@hexanol @mullvadnet Worse, in my mind, is that they are so ignorant of how the math of encryption works they cannot accept that what they want is impossible.
@hexanol @mullvadnet I think I know the answer to this and it's not nice: because everyone in the world wants to pretend all this stuff going on right now is normal instead of acknowledging or doing anything about it.
This is part of how we in the US became the nazi nation we are today. We wanted to just ignore away the nazis and their supporters as they rose to power.
@nazokiyoubinbou @mullvadnet very true, though I'm not surprised, because the ruling class seems to be doing everything they can to make people keep thinking that
@mullvadnet Really does seem like literally no one who isn't part of the EU Commission actually wants this...
@disorderlyf @mullvadnet police and secret services might
@disorderlyf @mullvadnet it was the danish government pushing this last time, not the EC motu proprio
@mullvadnet customer for life. Thank you for your service and advocacy and being the only actually cool VPN provider
@mullvadnet They will never stop either. The yearning to control ”for safety” is a built-in bug of the authoritarian mind.
The other side of the desire to rule is the yearning to submit.