January 22, 2025 · Blogs | EDRi-gram | Information democracy and participation | Just and open internet and technologies | Privacy and surveillance
EDRi-gram, 22 January 2025
The EDRi-gram is back after the winter break and yes, we missed you too. Before we dive into the new year, we have a review of 2024 for you. From stopping Chat Control to hosting the first-ever Tech and Society Summit, read up on what kept EDRi so busy last year.
In this edition, also catch-up with some important developments from the end of 2024 which are bound to pop up again on the digital rights radar soon. The infamous High Level Group Going Dark presented their "insecurity by design agenda". So don’t be surprised if EU politics sees another iteration of flawed proposals on data retention and circumventing encryption. Ugh.
Meanwhile, the European Commission presented their proposal for digitalising travel documents. “Didn’t they promise that for the third quarter of 2023,” you say? Indeed, but after the initiative received a devastating amount of negative feedback, it took more than a year for the adjusted EU travel app proposal. We provide an extensive analysis of the (so far) voluntary system for pre-travel controls.
For our more masochistically inclined readers, we take a look over to the US and how corporate social media such as Meta and X align with the new administration. Recent changes to content moderation policies empower far-right extremists and expose marginalised and minoritised communities to hate speech.
