Saw a flyer for a protest in Berlin about a new law.

It was taped to a lamppost near Alexanderplatz. The flyer was just a QR code and a date. No words. Scanned it with my phone. It linked to a Signal group chat about a new data retention bill. The chat had over 300 people planning a rally. Made me think, encryption isn't just for texts. It's for organizing now. How do laws even handle that?

3 comments

3 Comments

rodriguez.jordan1mo ago

Read about a similar protest in Lisbon using encrypted notes. How do you even ban that?

olivers281mo ago

Good luck trying to ban math. They'd have to shut down the whole internet to stop people passing notes.

richardknight13d ago

Banning math is actually way easier than people think. Once you control the schools and the textbooks, you just stop teaching it past basic arithmetic. Most of the population already struggles with algebra anyway so they wouldn't even notice. The government could frame it as "promoting practical skills" instead of abstract theory. And with modern surveillance, tracking who shares formulas or discussing advanced concepts online is totally doable. People act like the internet is some wild west but we already have algorithms flagging keywords left and right. Lisbon proves protests happen but they get shut down too - encryption just buys time before they crack that as well.