@mullvadnet Honest question: why won't you guys just add 2FA? Like TOTP or FIDO/U2F? I recognize this solution was probably technically easier - just a quick UI change, really - but 2FA would be an even more secure option. I'm curious why you guys have never rolled that out.
The European Commission has refused to disclose the members of the “Going Dark” High Level Group. However, Mullvad has accessed meeting minutes through a public request to the Swedish Ministry of Justice.
The first “Going Dark” meeting was led by Olivier Onidi (chat control advocate at the European Commission together with Ylva Johansson) and Anna-Carin Svensson at the Swedish Ministry of Justice.
Anna-Carin Svensson is known for her, according to Wikileak 2010, recommendation to American authorities to withhold surveillance agreements, between Sweden and USA, from the Swedish parliament.
At least one former FBI employee has been present at the meetings, saying: “solutions for lawful access (to data on device) should be prioritized". As a former FBI employee, he also expressed "his gratitude for the fact that the issue was being pursued within the EU.”
On April 21, 2024, European Police Chiefs together issued a joint statement calling for "action against end-to-end encryption." According to Swedish police, the statement is a direct extension of the “Going Dark” initiative.
According to meeting minutes from the Swedish parliament, the Minister of Justice Gunnar Strömmer states that the "Going Dark" group will work "to present effective recommendations for the new commission's entry in 2024 and for those recommendations to then be implemented."
The chat control bill was shot down by the European Parliament last year (still under endless debate in the Council of the EU), after the revelations that American tech companies and authorities has been part of the work behind the proposal. “Going Dark” is the new attempt.
We need to pay attention to the forces behind this. Both Ylva Johansson’s chat control argumentation and the “Going Dark” rhetoric is like a copy-paste from the FBI Director James Comey back in 2014.
As @Mer__edith said in a keynote speech: “The current attack on end-to-end encryption is very much related to a desire by some in government to return to the less fettered access to surveillance that they see as having lost post Snowden“
In the beginning of June, it’s time for the citizens of the European Union to elect new Members of the European Parliament. Vote for candidates who stand up for privacy as a human right!