E11: Spying on us all — Government and Big Tech want even more surveillance powers

DiEM25

Last month, Greece’s intelligence service – under control of prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis – got caught tapping the phone of a prominent opposition leader. The scandal, known as the “Greek Watergate”, has generated an uproar. And it’s led to a wave of calls for Mitsotakis’ resignation in Greece, including from our party in the Greek parliament, MeRA25. Meanwhile, the EU has put forward a proposal that would effectively end secure online communications, under the guise of fighting child pornography. Though the cause is noble, their solution would allow Big Tech to monitor everything on your phone. Opponents argue that this threatens personal rights and freedom of speech. And false positives have already had disastrous consequences for people falsely “flagged”. Is sacrificing our privacy the only way to combat child pornography? What does the potential expansion of digital surveillance by governments and corporations mean for democracy in Europe and beyond? And what can we, as activist citizens, do about all this? Our panel, including Julijana Zita, Erik Edman and MeRA25 leader Yanis Varoufakis, debate.