EU Parliament are about to pass a derogation which will result in the total surveillance of over 500M Europeans

A couple of weeks ago I wrote an article about why I believed an EU Commission proposal for a derogation which would allow for the total surveillance of all Europeans' electronic communications in contravention of EU law, is such a bad idea (you can read that article here).

As a result of that article I was invited by Patrick Breyer MEP to speak at a series of events he was organising to rally support against the Proposal in the EU Parliament.

Today I spoke at the second such event and what it did for me was really re-iterate why this is such an issue. My testimony was emotional, even after 35 years since I had my dignity stolen by those who were supposed to protect me, I found it impossible to talk about without eventually breaking down - it was incredibly embarrassing.

It reminded me of when all these really bad things happened to me, it reminded me of when I was sexually assaulted by my teachers, it reminded me of how lost I felt and how impossible it was to talk about it to anyone - because all trust was gone. It reminded me that no-one ever offered me any support, no asked me if I was ok and even after I told my story, it reminded me that no-one in authority did anything to help me, not then, not now and probably not ever in the future either.

But more importantly it reminded me that so many children, every single day have to go through those very same emotions, the same shame and same overwhelming loneliness and feeling of isolation. It reminded me WHY the ability to communicate in confidence; to speak freely about the abuse they have suffered in a safe space, is so critical.

I didn't have confidential communications tools when I was raped; all my communications were monitored by my abusers - there was nothing I could do, there was no confidence. My body, mind and heart is broken and scarred and the inability to turn to anyone, to talk about what happened to me saw me hospitalised on multiple occasions after trying to take my own life because I felt I had no-where and no-one to turn to. I can't help but wonder how much different my life would have been had I had access to these modern technologies.

The European Parliament in two weeks time will vote to remove that safety, to do further violence to those whom have and continue to be sexually abused. That vote will have a profound impact on victims and survivors of abuse. It will drive abuse underground making it far more difficult to detect; it will inhibit support groups from being able to help abuse victims - IT WILL DESTROY LIVES.

And why? So that our politicians can do what politicians have done for hundreds of years - sweep the issue under the carpet - make someone else responsible for it, so these same politicians can make themselves believe that they have done something - to ease their own conscience.

By sidestepping the issue and allowing giant US tech corporations to continue to ignore EU privacy laws - giving those same companies who have consistently been shown to ignore our laws, private policing powers, those politicians can now sleep easier.

So my message to every single MEP who votes in favour of the Proposal is this:

Shame on you, you are destroying lives so you can ease your own conscience for ignoring your responsibilities. You are destroying lives because helping those who are raped and assaulted as children is too difficult, or too sensitive or too politically volatile, so you choose instead to submit to commercial lobbying from private companies.

SHAME ON YOU!