Dear supporters,

We’ve only been away from your inbox for two weeks, and it’s been a whirlwind of a time. Let’s catch you up on how the EU is keeping the heat simmering on tech issues while undergoing record-breaking heatwaves.

Earlier this week, the European Commission’s panel of experts on child safety disappointingly backed indiscriminate age verification to exclude people under 13 from accessing online spaces – despite many young people across Europe calling for systemic change rather than bans. All this does is create barriers for everyone rather than engendering real safety, which requires looking at root causes and making online services safer for everyone.

Last week, the European Parliament was bullied – by its own President – to vote on the interim ePrivacy derogration (sometimes known as “Chat Control 1.0”) for a record-breaking third time in four months. This law allows Big Tech companies to monitor their users’ private communication to scan for child abuse materials – without warrants, suspicion or any legal basis or oversight. Although the temporary derogration was voted through due to procedural technicalities, the majority of Members of Parliament (MEPs) voted against it and excluded scanning of end-to-end encrypted message – sending a strong message against mass surveillance.

In this EDRigram, you can read our open letter to the European Commission, urging them to immediately reassess the EU-US adequacy decision after the US Supreme Court ruled that President Trump can remove the leaders of independent agencies and commissions. Also in this edition: a collective civil society call to the EU to take much-needed action on spyware after forensic analysis by the Citizen Lab revealed that a former MEP was targeted with Pegasus spyware while investigating spyware abuse as a part of the PEGA committee.

On a positive note, in what EDRi-member Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) hailed as a major win for computer users and developers, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has held Apple accountable under the Digital Markets Act and rejected the challenge to interoperability obligations.

This edition is our last hurrah before a necessary summer break. But we’re leaving you with an extended recommendations list to explore, and the reassurance that we’ll still be hard at work to protect our rights and freedoms online and building a more just digital future. If you’ll miss us over the summer, show us some love by supporting us with a donation and/or sending this edition to friends who would enjoy your favourite digital rights newsletter!

🎧 listen] Avatar.FM by Privacy Salon and Gimic. During this year’s CPDP event, Avatar.fm presented a fantastic programme of conversations, discussions and creative performances from the digital rights world. Topics covered included potential social media bans in Europe, the Fediverse, spyware abuses, chatbots and image-generated abuse. Experts and activists unpacked everything about data and AI-related subjects, with DJ sets and music woven in. Tune in here.

[🎧 listen] Recommender Systems by The Data Skeptic podcast, hosted by Kyle Polich. Recommender systems have infiltrated our video watching, travel planning, social media feeds, and other daily activities. This season’s interviews on The Data Skeptic podcast explore the methods, implementations, and consequences of these ubiquitous systems.

[📰 read] LGBT Q&A: How Can I Wipe Online Data That Points To My Queer Identity? by EFF. As a part of LGBT Q&A, EFF are answering your most pressing queer-related digital rights questions. Both online and offline, LGBTQ+ individuals and the fight for queer liberation are under threat; and the need for guidance and protection from prying eyes and oppressive structures is increasingly pertinent.

[🏃🏿 do] Explore Deceptive Patterns – the types, relevant laws, and other resources. Deceptive patterns trick people into doing things they didn’t mean to. Also known as “dark patterns,” they’re features of apps, websites and AI systems that stop you doing what you want, or steer you into harmful decisions you would not have made deliberately.

[📰 read] Hate “The Algorithm?” RSS Is One of the Tools You’ve Been Looking For by EFF. In the age of enshittification, there has been a push to reclaim our feeds and networks. EFF notes that there’s a tool that’s been around for decades that can help wrangle many of our feeds into something manageable: Really Simple Syndication, more commonly known as RSS.

[📰 read] The cost of data centre growth in Ireland: Households paid an estimated €715 million more in electricity bills by Friends of the Earth Ireland and Beyond Fossil Fuels. The new report by both organisations reveals the real cost borne by ordinary people in Ireland due to data centres’ rapid expansion in the country. Households in Ireland paid an estimated €715 million more in electricity bills between 2015 and 2023 due to the rapid expansion of data centres in the country. The research comes as the European Commission is looking to triple data centre capacity in the next five to seven years in a market so far largely dominated by US Big Tech companies.

[📰 read] Big Finance and Big Tech are Looting the AI Boom by Balanced Economy Project. This paper argues that the global rush to build AI data centres has rapidly become a story of concentrated financial power manufacturing a market that has captured governments and lawmakers, pushing risks and costs onto the rest of society. It documents how the AI data centre boom has been driven not by organic consumer demand but by a concentrated alliance between dominant technology corporations and the world’s largest financial actors at every level of the AI supply chain.

[📰 read] Media representation of AI in Italy by Hermes Centre. In their latest report, EDRi member Hermes Centre analyse how artificial intelligence is covered in four major Italian newspapers, exploring the dominant narratives, key actors, and missing perspectives in media coverage. Their findings indicate limited discussion of the AI Act, a focus on techno-optimism and corporate-centred narratives, and limited representation of civil society and affected communities. Read the full report in Italian or the executive summary in English.