Why GISAD Publishes Only on gisad.eu
Statement by GISAD – Global Institute for Structure relevance, Anonymity and Decentralisation
Participation that presupposes an IT department is not participation – it is procurement.
GISAD has made a decision: future statements on EU initiatives will no longer be submitted through portals that sit behind account walls, two-factor procedures and hardware keys – beginning with the European Commission’s Have Your Say portal and its EU Login. They will be published here, on gisad.eu – open to all, without login, without cookies, quotable by anyone. This is not a whim. It is a structural decision.
The finding
Anyone wishing to take part in an EU consultation today needs an EU Login account, a password that differs from those of the other portals, a registered second factor – the EU Login Mobile App or a security key – the correct PIN of that key, and the right verification method in the right menu. Each of these hurdles is individually defensible, and each has a security argument behind it. Together, they form a filter. Those who are paid for their contributions – consultancies, industry associations, corporate legal departments with IT support – absorb the effort as a business expense. Those who write out of civic conviction pay with time and patience, until they give up.
Authentication is not legitimisation
A contribution does not become better because its author has identified himself twelve times over. A statement consists of arguments, sources and deadlines – not of the number of login levels overcome. GISAD is registered in the EU Transparency Register (No. 244298340978-40). That is legitimisation: once, verifiable, public. Everything beyond it is identity checking without gain in knowledge. The right to take part in public discourse without identifying oneself at every step we call WAN anonymity – and it is not a fringe topic of internet policy, but the precondition for participation without fear.
The imbalance
The procedures that claim to hear civil society filter precisely it out. The volunteer expert, the independent researcher, the individual citizen do not fail on the content, but on the administrative apparatus in front of it. What remains are the voices that can afford the apparatus. A consultation that receives only paid contributions does not measure the opinion of Europe – it measures the budget of the contributors.
The consequence. GISAD continues to take the European Commission’s initiatives seriously: we read the drafts, name the initiative, reference and deadline, take a position, and publish everything here – without requiring an account from a single reader. Whoever wants to check who stands behind a statement will find us in the Transparency Register. Whoever wants to check whether it is true will find the sources in the text. That is more verifiability than any login mask. The door to participation must not stand behind a door to identity verification. We publish where everyone can read – not where you must first prove who you are.
GISAD – Global Institute for Structure relevance, Anonymity and Decentralisation · Registered in the EU Transparency Register, No. 244298340978-40
Reference: EU Transparency Register