Apostolis Fotiadis

Jan 24, 2025 | theguardian.com | Apostolis Fotiadis

In my 20 years of being a reporter, I have rarely come across anything that feels so important – and yet so widely unnoticed. I’ve been following the attempt to create a Europe-wide apparatus that could lead tomass surveillance. The idea is for every digital platform – from Facebook to Signal, Snapchat and WhatsApp, to cloud and online gaming websites – to scan users’ communications. This involves the use of technology that will essentially render the idea of encryption meaningless.

Oct 10, 2024 | balkaninsight.com | Apostolis Fotiadis

The European Union’s police agency, Europol, is revising how it screens for conflict of interest when employees move to the private sector following an investigation by BIRN published in September 2023. BIRN had highlighted the cases of two former senior Europol officials who moved to US-based Thorn – which develops artificial intelligence software to target child sexual abuse images, CSAM, online – before a mandatory two-year cooling off period had expired.

Apr 8, 2024 | europeanpressprize.com | Apostolis Fotiadis |Ludek Stavinoha |Giacomo Zandonini

TheInvestigativeReportingAward by published by Le Monde, Balkan Insight, El Diario, Solomon, Die Zeit, De Groene Amsterdammer, IrpiMedia, Domani, Netzpolitik, France, Serbia, Spain, Greece, Germany, the Netherlands A controversial regulation arriving before the EU Parliament is being pushed by a network of tech giants and security services, whose interests go far beyond child protection. Its opponents fear it opens up private messages to mass surveillance.

Sep 29, 2023 | balkaninsight.com | Apostolis Fotiadis

In the meeting, the minutes of which were obtained under a Freedom of Information request, Europol requested unlimited access to the data produced from the detection and scanning of communications, and that no boundaries be set on how this data is used. “All data is useful and should be passed on to law enforcement, there should be no filtering by the [EU] Centre because even an innocent image might contain information that could at some point be useful to law enforcement,” the minutes state.

Sep 26, 2023 | lemonde.fr | Giacomo Zandonini |Ludek Stavinoha |Apostolis Fotiadis

"The privacy advocates sound very loud. But someone must also speak for the children." Just a few months before launching her initiative against online child pornography, in November 2021, Ylva Johansson had already prepared the debate over what would become one of the most contentious legislative proposals Brussels had seen in years.