Dear supporters,

It’s April Fools’ day and some of the latest news from the EU digital rights world does feel like headlines from The Onion. Let’s walk you through the various ways EU institutions and member states continued to clown around about our rights, and how we kept up the good fight.

Last week was another example of the hasty deregulation process, with the already rushed and flawed AI Omnibus proposal going through a plenary vote in the Parliament and trilogues starting the very same day. The speed with which this process took place would be amusing if it did not massively undermine rights and protections for people from risky AI systems. It’s almost like EU lawmakers think if they go fast enough, we won’t notice or criticise their ‘move fast, break things’ approach.

Another blow came last Thursday with the European Parliament passing the inhumane Deportation Regulation, despite popular backlash and mobilisation. This law would lead to an EU version of ICE, and will legalise draconian measures like house raids and device seizures, and expand tech-enabled racial profiling, detention and illegal cross-border data sharing. Now, we must pressure EU member states to change course. Follow updates from the We Keep Us Safe campaign for more on this key issue.

These developments make it clear that our rights are under threat from not just deregulation, which reduces protections, but also the EU’s securitisation agenda, which infringes on our freedoms. It is imperative that we work together to resist these waves despite setbacks because there’s still power we can wield and wins we can celebrate.

For example, after weeks of shocking developments and democratic interference, the European Parliament took an unprecedented do-over vote on their position on the ePrivacy derogation (known as Chat Control 1.0). Thankfully, Members of the European Parliament held strong in their rejection of mass surveillance despite strong attempts at democratic interference from the Commission and the Council.

Another recent win: in late February, Greek courts issued a landmark criminal, first-instance, conviction in the Predatorgate scandal, finding four individuals linked to the spyware vendor Intellexa guilty of unlawful surveillance. This is a first-of-a-kind criminal conviction of spyware vendors executives in the EU, and we are hopeful it will lead to further accountability and redress for victims of spyware attacks.

Read about this and more in this EDRi-gram:

• [📰read ] How EU funding and exports of high-risk AI systems exacerbate severe human rights violations in Palestine and the broader region by 7amleh – The Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media. This report provides an in-depth analysis of how European policies contribute to financing and exporting advanced digital technologies used in contexts of surveillance, control, and repression, including in the occupied Palestinian territory and countries across the Middle East and North Africa. Europe’s role does not end with developing regulatory frameworks for artificial intelligence within its own borders. Through funding programs, investment mechanisms, and technology exports, the EU also supports the spread of high-risk systems abroad, where they are used in areas such as migration management, biometric surveillance, predictive security systems, and more.
• [🏃🏿do] Tell Meta: keep encryption for Instagram messages by Mozilla Foundation. Meta has quietly said it will end support for encrypted messaging on Instagram from 8 May, 2026. Encryption helps ensure that your messages stay between you and the person with whom you’re communicating. When end-to-end encryption is enabled, no one – not even Meta – can snoop on you. Right now, hundreds of millions of people use Instagram to message friends, family, and communities. Privacy should be a default feature of the technology we rely on every day – not an optional extra, and not something that quietly disappears. Sign this petition to urge Meta to reverse its decision and continue to support encryption on Instagram, and to make it the default.
• [🎧listen] Data centers in space!? by Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000. Data centers are overburdening the planet, so tech billionaires have a new scheme — put them in space! Astrophysicist Dr. Adam Becker joins Prof. Emily M. Bender and sociologist Dr. Alex Hanna to launch this plan into the sun. In this episode, they unpack all the reasons that this hilariously terrible idea will never be viable outside of sci-fi-villain fantasies.