You think the Microsoft execs are using it?
I actually think it is very possible that they are using it. Because I also think that the execs have no clue how any of this works and use AI extensively to make their decisions. At least that seems to explain a lot of the stuff going on at Microsoft and elsewhere.
Well yes, but I don’t see data retention of IP adresses and real-time scanning of the content of private chats as necessarily the same topic. Obviously they are both bad, but they are different things, which is also reflected by the parties having very different views on both.
Resistance to mandatory chat control seems to be the one thing that every current german party agrees on. Even the literal Nazis of the AfD voted against it. The point of discussion in Germany was always if there should be a voluntary chat control, not if there should be a mandatory chat control.
A shift away from that position across party lines would be very hard to orchestrate and I can’t see that happening anytime soon.
I don’t follow your argument. They repeatedly tried to use the expiration to generate pressure to come to a fast agreement. The pressure is gone now and so is a big reason why this topic was discussed so often in the first place. It will be harder for the advocates now to explain to the rest of the member states why it should be put back on the agenda. Countries like Germany are still against mandatory scanning and have no reason to engage in a discussion about it now.
The only thing that is lost now is the chance for all of this to expire, but that was always very unlikely.
Whatsapp already legally scanned for years, because the proposal is just an indefinite extension of this temporary regulation from 2021 that would have expired in April 2026 otherwise:
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/en/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX%3A32021R1232
Services are currently allowed to scan you if they want to. It is shit, but it is also literally just the status quo. Nothing changes.
It is also so extremely pointless. There are dozens of real artworks that look basically the same (just look at the top pictures for googling “discovery of america” or “christopher columbus”). All of them could have been used instead for the meme.
You make it sound like there are not also multiple subsidies programs directly for organic farmers.