Sixty minutes. That’s how long it took for a private Snapchat message to travel from Kristen Volpe’s phone to the FBI to the deputies standing in her elementary school hallway. On January 29, 2025, the 22-year-old student teacher at John L. Hensey Elementary in Washington, Illinois, vented to her boyfriend and two roommates — three people total — after a student closed her laptop mid-class and wiped her lesson plan. She referenced shooting the student or the school. She meant it as a frustrated joke. Snapchat’s algorithm didn’t get the humor.
No student reported her. No parent. No coworker. The flag was entirely automated. Snapchat’s policy permits voluntary emergency disclosures to law enforcement — no warrant required — when the platform determines imminent harm exists. The algorithm makes that initial call. Think of it like your Ring doorbell deciding to call 911 on its own, except the doorbell is reading your text messages.
When I say “the US and the EU are effectively the same on this matter” then I talk about the legal framework that is allowing this to happen. Snapchat can scan in the EU as they did in the US.
You say this is not happening, and honestly I don’t know if anyone is currently scanning under Chat Control 1 or not. It sounds to me though they could if they wanted to. Has nothing of interest come up yet? Are they scared of GDPR? If they find something, maybe they are reluctant because the public sentiment towards privacy is different and this would blow up in their face? Maybe you are right and they simply don’t scan. I would not rely on it though.
Of course the lived situation in the US is significantly more oppressive than in the EU. The crimes of ICE, the constant surveillance with flock, the fcc threatening free speech… it’s insane. We need to make sure that in the EU the situation won’t escalate as quickly as it did in the US, because there are plenty political parties and some governments who are trying.
Yes, and in both US and rest of the world police can use deadly force when their life is in danger. The laws are effectively the same. In practice:
Talking about what “legal framework” allows to happen while ignoring reality is pointless, disingenuous and purposefully misleading.
You lost me mate, and my patience for the insults has run thin too. All the best to you
You got confused by a simple comparison? No wonder you don’t understand anything about Chat Control.