“Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.” Desine sperare qui hic intras. According to survivors of the Nazi death camp at Mauthausen, this quote from Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy was placed above the entrance to that factory of horror.
Until recently, we believed such nightmares would never return. We considered Nazism and racial hatred to be ultimate evils. We naively believed that humanity had learned the terrible lessons of the 20th century. Arrogantly, we assumed we would never allow new death factories, genocides, or wars of extermination to arise again.
We could not have imagined how cruelly indifferent the world would be when this kind of evil returned—without any significant reaction. The “international community” treats such events as normal and unworthy of attention.
What does Palestine mean to the average European? To a resident of the Balkans? Just a distant, exotic corner of the world—full of hot sands, violence, and people with alien cultures.
We don’t even pretend to be interested in what happens in that far-off region—after all, it has nothing to do with us, right? Talk of Palestine is merely idle chatter for political activists and overenthusiastic students who have too much free time and too few responsibilities?
But we fail to realize how interconnected our world has become—and how Palestine is much closer to the Balkans and Europe than we think.
And the problem isn’t even about migrants fleeing war.
CAMP OR CONCENTRATION CAMP?
In the spring of 2025, Israeli authorities announced plans to construct a colossal “humanitarian camp” in the Gaza Strip for the local population. This is a logical continuation of the genocidal practices used by Israel in Palestine—residents of Gaza are regularly subjected to “forced relocations” by order of the Israeli army. Tens of thousands are herded into the most war-devastated areas, with no infrastructure, no access for international observers or humanitarian organizations, and rampant disease and abuse under IDF control. Just in June alone, Israeli soldiers killed over 600 and injured more than 4,000 people while distributing food—according to international sources.
Yes, tank fire on a starving crowd is now part of the “new normal” for “civilized countries.”
The Gaza camp project is not meant to solve humanitarian issues for the Palestinian people—far from it. Even based on the limited data available to the press, it is clear this is more like an expanded version of El Salvador’s high-tech maximum-security prison CECOT—a concentration camp with filtration systems, total movement surveillance, no contact with the outside world, and no way out.
600,000 people under Israeli army control on a patch of land less than 20% of Gaza’s current territory, saturated with digital surveillance systems: biometrics, electronic passes, AI-powered movement tracking.
ABANDON ALL HOPE, YOU WHO ENTER
Desine sperare qui hic intras.
Before our very eyes, a completely inhumane, monstrous system of mass repression is being born—built upon the latest scientific and technological achievements.
Every technology holds the potential for both good and evil—even digital systems of social control. Their danger lies not in the fact of surveillance itself, but in their capacity to become tools of bureaucratic and governmental abuse on an unprecedented scale. History is filled with examples of what happens when politicians—those who believe in racial hierarchies—gain access to powerful computing tools and use them to fuel Kafkaesque nightmares. Let us not forget IBM’s tabulating machines, without which the SS Racial Office (Rasseamt-SS) could never have efficiently carried out arrests and deportations to concentration camps.
You may think this is only a problem for distant Third World countries—for Latin America or the Middle East. But what if such practices are being normalized as acceptable within European society?
What if they are already spreading—under the pretext of “security”?
DIGITAL PRISON UNDER THE GUISE OF SECURITY
Technologies tested in conflict zones are now being introduced in the EU under noble-sounding pretexts. “Combating illegal migration”? We now see biometric refugee camps in Greece. “Crime prevention”? Surveillance algorithms are being implemented in Germany. “Counter-terrorism”? You’re likely aware of the Chat Control 2.0 message-scanning system (officially titled the “EU Regulation to Combat Child Sexual Abuse”), a draft law that requires messaging platforms (WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram) to scan all personal messages, photos, and videos for “prohibited content.”
The Third World serves merely as a testing ground for digital totalitarian practices developed by Western tech corporations. Technologies are first deployed on “undesirable” groups (migrants, refugees, minorities) and then legalized and normalized under the pretext of “crises” (migration, terrorism, war) for everyone. (The EU has already legalized AI-powered surveillance at the 2024 Olympics.)
It’s important to clarify—we criticize these systems of digital control not out of Luddite fear or sci-fi fantasies about “machines enslaving humanity.” Not at all. As with any technology, the problem lies not in the tool itself, but in the people who wield it. (After all, nothing we currently call “artificial intelligence” even comes close to the term as envisioned by science fiction—it’s simply a digital executor of someone else’s will, no different from a CNC machine.)
PALANTIR IN THE DIGITAL PRISON – JURY, PROSECUTOR, LAWYER
Even now, we are witnessing early examples of how dangerous the tools of total population control can become—and how fragile and unreliable morality and ethics prove to be when confronted with such tools. The infamous “digital prison” CECOT in El Salvador, involving the American tech firm Palantir (whose software played the roles of jury, prosecutor, and defense attorney), demonstrated that, yes, digitalizing justice helped remove thousands of criminals from the streets—criminals who eluded traditional law enforcement for decades. (Though serious questions remain about the ties between powerful cartels and the governments of both El Salvador and the U.S.)
However, alongside murderers and drug traffickers, thousands of people were also imprisoned for such “dangerous crimes” as overdue parking fines from 15 years ago. And they were all treated the same—guilty or not.
There are no technical barriers preventing such systems from being used against anyone, for any purpose—whether for genocide or repression. And, as we now see, there are fewer and fewer moral barriers as well. Society is ignoring what’s happening. It sells freedom in exchange for the false promise of safety.
European states are increasingly deploying systems of digital control. In practice, this leads to the creation of an infrastructure of total surveillance—where the line between protecting citizens and suppressing freedoms gradually disappears.
MORIA CAMP: A PLACE EVEN THE NAZIS WOULD WELCOME
It is naïve to complain about the brutality of the Israelis, who are carrying out an overt genocide in Gaza with the silent approval of the EU and the US, when similar processes are taking place right here in Europe—and we turn a blind eye to them just as easily, believing they don’t concern us.
For over six years, the “refugee camp” of Moria has existed on the Greek island of Lesbos—a place whose essence and conditions would be applauded by Nazis. On a small piece of land, originally designated as a temporary holding site for 3,000 migrants prior to their transfer to Africa or the Middle East, tens of thousands of people have been crammed in. They are held in utterly inhumane conditions—overcrowding, unsanitary surroundings, violence, hunger—and their movements are tightly controlled through digital surveillance tools.
The camp’s perimeter is secured by a dense network of facial recognition cameras. (It’s worth noting that while EU authorities loudly criticize China’s “re-education camps” for Uyghurs, they quietly purchased Moria’s surveillance equipment from Huawei, the Chinese state tech giant—an astounding display of hypocrisy.) Every migrant is forcibly required to submit a full set of biometric data, which is then used to monitor them within the camp. All movements are managed via a digital QR code system; leaving the camp is impossible, and the internal conditions resemble a maximum-security prison—more akin to the Latin American model than anything else.
The camp is directly funded by the European Union through the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF). It’s essential to understand that its internal structure and practices are not incidental—they are officially sanctioned and approved by EU leadership.
AND YES – THE PROCESS HAS ALREADY BEGUN
In reality, this is a massive real-world experiment that has sparked no significant public outcry. As a result, the methods employed there are now available for broader application.
Not just on migrants.
Not just on criminals.
But on ordinary European citizens.
And yes—this scaling is already happening.
Despite hypocritically condemning Chinese digital totalitarian practices, European authorities are actively implementing similar measures. Predictive analytics programs and financial scoring systems are gradually becoming a reality of the “new Western way of life.” London police are testing the PredPol system—an algorithm that predicts “crime zones.” The Netherlands used the SyRI system to monitor underprivileged neighborhoods for identifying “potential criminals” (its official use was halted by court decision, but whether it operates under a new name remains uncertain). Germany is equipping train stations and airports with facial recognition cameras on a massive scale—essentially transferring full control over any citizen’s movements to the authorities.
THE ALGORITHM JUDGES YOU
European banks now use client scoring based on transaction profiles—known as “transaction-based profiling.” This system automatically evaluates a person’s financial behavior through payment analysis. Banks and government bodies use AI algorithms to determine a client’s “reliability” and detect “suspicious” spending. These algorithms analyze everything: what you buy, where you pay, to whom you transfer money. It’s an invisible system where your purchases define your perceived trustworthiness in the eyes of the state.
And this is hardly a joke or exaggeration. In Italy, banks have blocked accounts over donations to NGOs or cryptocurrency purchases. In the Netherlands, there have been cases of lowered credit scores due to transactions at CBD shops (one unlucky purchase—and you’re flagged as a person of concern). In Spain, Santander lowers scores for frequent international transfers.
Add to this the digital euro projects, the gradual removal of cash from circulation, and the precedent of authorities gaining full access to citizens’ financial transactions in France—and you see a future completely stripped of the right to private life.
The elimination of any uncontrolled economic activity, social interaction, or political life is the ultimate goal of any state. Cryptocurrencies, cash, online freelance work—these are spaces of freedom, and thus challenges to governments. Digitalization removes all friction in managing society. Introduce a single digital currency, tracking systems, and advanced AI analytics—and you no longer need an extensive internal security apparatus or economic police. Any dissenter or “undesirable element” can be excluded from society with a single click—ushering in their social death.
DON’T BE SILENT – SAY “NO” TO TOTAL CONTROL
Digital totalitarianism doesn’t arrive with a bang—it grows quietly, under the respectable guise of fighting crime, terrorism, or protecting children. At first, surveillance targets “others”—migrants, activists, dissenters. Then it becomes the norm for everyone. Already today, banks assess our trustworthiness through our transactions, algorithms predict “dangerous” behavior, and governments demand the scanning of private messages. Tomorrow, these mechanisms may fuse into a total control system where any disapproved action is punished with financial exclusion, account bans, or inclusion on “suspicious lists.”
But this scenario is not inevitable. History offers examples of public pressure forcing authorities to retreat: mass protests against ACTA in Europe, court victories over discriminatory algorithms in the Netherlands, resistance to surveillance in messaging platforms. The core problem today is not technology—it is political apathy. As long as the majority believes digital control won’t affect them, governments and corporations will continue dismantling privacy and freedom piece by piece.
Resistance begins with awareness. A broad public conversation is needed—not just within activist circles, but across town halls, labor unions, parent groups, and media platforms. Citizens must demand transparency: what surveillance systems are already in place? Who decides their use? How can algorithmic errors be challenged? Without independent civic oversight, digitalization will become a tool of repression.
This is not a matter of distant future—the decisions made today will determine whether we live in a society of freedom or a digital prison camp. Silence and inaction amount to complicity. It’s time to choose: accept total control as the “inevitable price of security,” or defend the right to privacy, anonymity, and human dignity. There is no alternative—either we act today, or tomorrow we may not be allowed to speak at all.
