Rules for thee but not for me: MAPs under the GDPR (excerpt from Prostasia Newsletter #49)

[Dreamer]

Rules for thee but not for me: MAPs under the GDPR (excerpt from Prostasia Newsletter #49)

During 2022, the rights and safety of LGBTQ+ people have come under renewed challenge, not only in the United States, but also in Eastern Europe. The most egregious example of this comes from Hungary, where a “Don’t Say Gay” style law was passed that falsely paints LGBTQ+ people as a threat to the safety of children. The law, misleadingly described by the government as an “anti-pedophilia” law, gained support through a misinformation campaign that likened LGBTQ+ activists to child abusers.

During 2022, the rights and safety of LGBTQ+ people have come under renewed challenge, not only in the United States, but also in Eastern Europe. The most egregious example of this comes from Hungary, where a “Don’t Say Gay” style law was passed that falsely paints LGBTQ+ people as a threat to the safety of children. The law, misleadingly described by the government as an “anti-pedophilia” law, gained support through a misinformation campaign that likened LGBTQ+ activists to child abusers.

Not far away from Hungary is Czechia, also known as the Czech Republic, where LGBTQ activists have been rallying to ensure that the country does not follow down Hungary’s path. While there is no “anti-pedophilia” law planned in Czechia, authorities there have enforced an existing law – the GDPR, or General Data Protection Regulation – against a pedophilia support organization ČEPEK, whose founding members included one self-identifying minor-attracted person (MAP), a sexologist of the National Institute of Mental Health, and a victim of child sexual abuse.

The dispute concerns whether members of ČEPEK are violating the privacy rights of children by having a space on their website where films and TV shows that feature children can be discussed. Of course, there is no question that for anyone else in society, simply discussing films or TV shows and the actors who appear in them would not be considered a privacy violation. But the Czech regulator contends that because the members of ČEPEK are minor-attracted, this somehow transforms the nature of what would otherwise be lawful speech, and “puts the personal data of the persons on these posts in a sexual context.”

ČEPEK responded to the regulator challenging this assertion, and arguing that “no one can be prohibited from discussing these publicly presenting persons in any public or non-public discussion forum, provided, of course, that the discussion is decent, non-defamatory or in any other way does not impugn the reputation of the person in question.”

On 14 October 2022, the Czech data protection authority finally rejected ČEPEK's arguments, giving the rather tortuous justification that although “identical comments... posted on other websites” would be OK, they could not be posted on the ČEPEK forum, because this would have “negative consequences for the minor concerned, as he is thus included in the paedophilic sphere from the point of view of third parties.”

Because the law has (so far) only been applied against those who are attracted to minors, few in the broader community are likely to object to the ruling. But its ramifications for the speech of other sexually marginalized groups are much broader.

In the United States, we have seen that the speech of drag queens, for example, is treated as being inherently sexual and therefore inherently unsuitable to be expressed in public. So too, the speech of sex workers and LGBTQ+ people is inherently more likely to be read as sexual and to be censored from social media platforms.

What links these examples with the Czech case is the notion that speech that is completely non-sexual can acquire a "sexual context" simply based on the sexuality of the speaker. And that is an extremely dangerous precedent for the Czech data protection authority to be setting, that should set alarm bills ringing for privacy advocates worldwide.

ČEPEK now awaits a new ruling to determine what actions it must take to remedy the violation that the data protection authority has found. It also has the option of appealing that ruling to the European Court of Human Rights. This would make an interesting test case about whether human rights really do belong to all – or whether it is permissible to deny freedom of expression to those whom society deems unworthy.

[pbd]

Thanks for sharing the article. I can share some background information in return

Approximately a year ago, a platform for information exchange between like-minded anti-contact communities (that is to say like MSC or VirPed) was created by MAP Support Club (MSC) and ČEPEK takes humble part in this cooperation. Since authorities are claiming that we violate peoples rights provided by GDPR and the GDPR applies throughout European Union, we shared details from the dispute on this platform with other communities, that can be affected by upcoming ruling.

[Kofola Nizozemi]

CEPEK is the last forum on the web, or the last organisation worldwide as far as I know where you can speak about your feelings and struggles of life. Well and a forum in Germany girllover forum.

In the Netherland all aid for MAP's is gone. No therapists, no platforms, no help in any form. Only discrimination and violence. That's it.

When CEPEK is no longer there, it means almost all is gone. In my own country no therapists wants to help me, police does not even come to protect me from violence, I have many duties and no civil rights what so ever.

I really hope CEPEK can stay. I would be sad when also CEPEK is gone.

[Bouře]

CEPEK is the last forum on the web, or the last organisation worldwide as far as I know where you can speak about your feelings and struggles of life. Well and a forum in Germany girllover forum.

Last forum where you could talk about your feelings + girllover German forum? There are plenty of pedophile forums and this is one of many where you can share your feelings. What about Prostasia, Virped, MAPclub, GSA? Or what's wrong with them?

[Kofola Nizozemi]

Oh oke.

I do not know about them.

Sorry. I have read virped on twitter, but you can not post anything there only read. I did not know they had a forum/

Thanks, I will try to find those forum by some search engine - not google as google is evil - duckduck or seznam yandex ...

Diky!

[Marco Freeman]

Sorry. I have read virped on twitter, but you can not post anything there only read. I did not know they had a forum/

Thanks, I will try to find those forum by some search engine - not google as google is evil - duckduck or seznam yandex ...

Virped's forum is kind of hidden, so if you wish to enter, you can follow the instructions on the bottom of their main information page:

We operate a support group for pedophiles who are committed to avoiding having sexual contact with children. As of April 2021, more than 6,000 people have created accounts. If you wish to join, <contact us>

– Source: https://www.virped.org/