The U.K. Parliament has passed the Online Safety Bill (OSB), which says it will make the U.K. “the safest place” in the world to be online. In reality, the OSB will lead to a much more censored, locked-down internet for British users. The bill could empower the government to undermine not just the privacy and security of U.K. residents, but internet users worldwide.
  • Doc Blaze@lemmy.world
    72·
    2 years ago

    The government, however, has said the bill does not ban end-to-end encryption.

    Instead it will require companies to take action to stop child abuse on their platforms and as a last resort develop technology to scan encrypted messages, it has said.

    Tech companies have said scanning messages and end-to-end encryption are fundamentally incompatible.

    Jesus Christ how staggeringly incompetent is the national government that no tech ceo can find a way to explain to them there is no way to govern content without having access to it via a known backdoor, which very plainly is to fundamentally break encryption.

    Let’s propose a bill that forces them to find a way to invent a flashable laser beam that scans for government corruption that happens behind closed doors, even private residences, and if they miss anything, the entire cabinet will be fined and must legally be fired before next election.

    You see the bill doesn’t make you responsible for all corruption in every back alley everywhere, only for not immediately detecting and stopping it before it takes hold, in any shape or form not currently possible.

    Fucking morons. Don’t we decide who is smart enough to be voted into government? These people are the best we can come up with? This what I think people mean when they say voting is pointless.

    • Random Dent@lemmy.ml
      451·
      2 years ago

      I think the idea behind these kinds of laws isn’t so much the stated intent, which as far as I can tell is basically unenforceable, but to introduce a ton of extremely vague laws that could apply to almost anything you do online, which they can then use selectively against whoever they feel like.

    • renlok@lemmy.ml
      13·
      2 years ago

      This government is the result of multiple votes of no confidence and they somehow get worse each time.

    • Retiring@lemmy.ml
      7·
      2 years ago

      I feel what you are saying, but tech ceos explaining governments things is the problem. I do agree with the rest of what you said.

    • el_bhm@lemm.ee
      5·
      2 years ago

      Operator of the laser can decide what constitutes a corruption.

      Dont forget the important part.

  • Duży Szef [he/him]@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
    362·
    2 years ago

    Britons again with the most draconian laws you can possibly imagine. That wretched island has been nothing but a pile of the worst things and ideas humanity has to offer, and still it’s the “bastion of freedom” and part of the “free west”.

    What a joke. At least free software alternatives that make sense and can provide anonymity and privacy could possibly be free from such a backdoor, like SimpleX or something else.

    Well I wish best of luck to all Britons so that they may be safe. Especially trans people…

    • Random Dent@lemmy.ml
      161·
      2 years ago

      Sometimes I feel like the UK is the West’s testing ground for all their worst ideas. Dump it in there, see what happens, then roll it out everywhere else.

      • RaoulDook@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        2 years ago

        It’s the Orwellian fascism dev environment there, rolling out all the new privacy-killing tech and policy to squash the boot down on Britons a little farther each day. While the snoopers in the US and Australia watch with baited breath to see how much they will tolerate.

      • suckmyspez@lemmy.world
        1·
        2 years ago

        Only if the VPN provider follows the advice in the bill. I imagine there will be a lot of VPN providers that won’t give a sh!t what the U.K. government say.

        I think companies like Proton & Mullvad will stand their ground.

  • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
    14·
    2 years ago

    Did they?

    I feel like this is yet another don quixote versus the windmills thing.

    SSL, TLS, SSH, just a few protocols that float the internet don’t support any of the crap that the UK government wants, nor can they.

    So either the entire world spends 10 years building a completely new internet based on new protocols that will be abused within 2 weeks, just because UK politicians are retarded, or… well, I guess the UK will just have to cut their country off of the Internet, a brexit, if you will. I heard those work really well too.

    It doesn’t work like they want.

  • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
    7·
    2 years ago

    Hey, didn’t I have 50.000 ony bank account? It’s empty!

    No, you logged in and transferred it all to some Russian account.

    what do you mean I have child porn images in my files? I don’t have those

    Now you do after your ex working at obs put them there for you

    …

    So so so so so many ways that this WILL be abused to death. Meanwhile actual criminals will continue using secure encryption protocols, good luck with that.

  • ᕙ(⇀‸↼‶)ᕗ@lemm.ee
    62·
    2 years ago

    i praise the kids of great britain and the colonies for making uk leave the eu. may they have tea, biscuits, a broken economy and no privacy.

    • Gazumi@lemmy.world
      5·
      2 years ago

      A touch harsh, but possibly accurate. I’m still furious that we have people who still think it was a good idea. Those people blame the imoact of Brexit on the poor handful of people arriving here as migrants. Then double down by saying thar if it hadn’t of been for the migrants, they wouldn’t have voted Brexit. Sorry, rant over.

    • funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works
      2·
      2 years ago

      I mean it was the grandparents not the kids. If we had the same vote today, no new voters, no one changed their vote, it would be REMAIN, as enough LEAVE voters have died in the interim to swing the vote in the other direction.