Final Word from Thursday, August 28, 2025

As Czechs were debating yesterday whether the EU should be allowed to engage in mass surveillance through Chat Control, French Pres. Emmanuel Macron was telling Moldovans in Chișinău that the EU isn't the USSR. "Unlike Russia," he said, "the EU doesn't threaten anyone. It respects the sovereignty of each country. It's a union where each country decides to join freely and sovereignly, and where the sovereignty of all is respected. It's a union of prosperity and peace. The European Union is in no way the Soviet Union." When it comes to Chat Control, Macron is right. A closer comparison than the Soviet Union would be the United States. Edward Snowden wrote in Permanent Record six years ago that NSA operatives were already able to pull up "pretty much anyone's address, or IP address, and then basically go through the recent history of their online activity." That was the situation when he left in 2013. The capabilities of the main espionage powers - USA, UK, China, Russia, Israel - have increased significantly since then. The EU doesn't want to spy on its citizens the way the USSR did. It wants to be able to do it much better. [ Czech Republic Moldova U.S.S.R. U.K. U.S. ]