The UK's war on anonymity has come to America • Hacker News Board

Re: The UK's war on anonymity has come to America

#21

Post by walrus01 » Tue, Aug 11, 2026, 12:58 AM UTC

newspaper1 wrote: post #11

Havoc wrote: post #6

The whole think of the children angle is so cursed. Used to push surveillance meanwhile actual harm against children goes ignored. See Epstein files and the grooming gangs in the UK If it actually did anything to protect the children it wouldn’t be so objectionable

Epstein is real, the “grooming gangs” are not, unless you’re talking about Jimmy Saville.

Epstein and grooming gangs are both real. Not that the whole "grooming gangs" problem hasn't been vastly amplified and turned into a repeated media talking point by a bunch of the extreme right wing in the UK, however. There's plenty of domestic non south asian pedos and molestors there too.

Re: The UK's war on anonymity has come to America

#22

Post by iamnothere » Tue, Aug 11, 2026, 12:58 AM UTC

Analemma_ wrote: post #7

On this topic, have people noticed the sudden coordinated media push for Flock Is Your Friend? The Free Press, The Atlantic, and Axios have all churned out pro-Flock articles in the last week. Clearly someone (I assume A16Z, but it could be multiple groups) is panicking about the mounting bipartisan backlash to Flock cameras and is starting to write checks to try and head it off.

My theory is that the establishment sees the oncoming economic crisis and is desperately trying to plan for managing the fallout. They don’t like Flock or its backers, but they feel they have no choice. Same as why Palantir is gradually being rehabilitated in the mainstream press.

You’ll also notice that Anduril is quickly being accepted now that we’re expending munitions faster than our replacement rate.

Re: The UK's war on anonymity has come to America

#23

Post by BLKNSLVR » Tue, Aug 11, 2026, 12:59 AM UTC

Analemma_ wrote: post #7

On this topic, have people noticed the sudden coordinated media push for Flock Is Your Friend? The Free Press, The Atlantic, and Axios have all churned out pro-Flock articles in the last week. Clearly someone (I assume A16Z, but it could be multiple groups) is panicking about the mounting bipartisan backlash to Flock cameras and is starting to write checks to try and head it off.

Noticed the same with some media publishing anti-work-from-home articles recently.

"We need the plebs to want to mock people who work from home, to reduce the reticence in coming back to work in the office"

"We need our commercial property values to go back up"

Edited to add:

"Our managers need to _feel_ as if they're actually managing people"

Re: The UK's war on anonymity has come to America

#24

Post by matchbok3 » Tue, Aug 11, 2026, 1:01 AM UTC

BLKNSLVR wrote: post #23

Analemma_ wrote: post #7

On this topic, have people noticed the sudden coordinated media push for Flock Is Your Friend? The Free Press, The Atlantic, and Axios have all churned out pro-Flock articles in the last week. Clearly someone (I assume A16Z, but it could be multiple groups) is panicking about the mounting bipartisan backlash to Flock cameras and is starting to write checks to try and head it off.

Noticed the same with some media publishing anti-work-from-home articles recently. "We need the plebs to want to mock people who work from home, to reduce the reticence in coming back to work in the office" "We need our commercial property values to go back up" Edited to add: "Our managers need to _feel_ as if they're actually managing people"

It's 2026, the conspiracy theory that business people wanted RTO for office space value has been debunked 100 times. Such a silly, nonsense idea.

Re: The UK's war on anonymity has come to America

#25

Post by anigbrowl » Tue, Aug 11, 2026, 1:01 AM UTC

like_any_other wrote: post #5

matheusmoreira wrote: post #3

> These NGOs have converged upon a unified strategy: use the rhetoric of ‘child safety’ to advocate for digital ID laws that would prevent adults from using the internet anonymously. Of course. Anyone who brings up kids is trying to manipulate you into giving up your freedom for security. Whatever argument they make should be simply ignored and dismissed.

Note how they always ignore parental controls, and skip straight to deanonymize everyone.

Tech people keep ignoring the fact that many people a) find the parental controls too hard to use and b) have no confidence that their kids won't find a way to circumvent them.

If parents felt in control of technology they wouldn't be calling on governments to regulate it in the first place. I know a lot of tech people like to assume that government wants to control everything and these parents are fake front groups established to manufacture consent, but this is infowars-type conspiracy thinking. Most people are just not that facile with technology and people who have kids are atavistically opposed to anything that could harm their kids.

Tech people's unwillingness to even engage with concerns about harm to children (eg the GP) more or less guarantees more aggressive regulation. IT's a self-defeating position.

Re: The UK's war on anonymity has come to America

#26

Post by donw » Tue, Aug 11, 2026, 1:02 AM UTC

matheusmoreira wrote: post #3

> These NGOs have converged upon a unified strategy: use the rhetoric of ‘child safety’ to advocate for digital ID laws that would prevent adults from using the internet anonymously. Of course. Anyone who brings up kids is trying to manipulate you into giving up your freedom for security. Whatever argument they make should be simply ignored and dismissed.

[flagged]

Re: The UK's war on anonymity has come to America

#27

Post by ekianjo » Tue, Aug 11, 2026, 1:03 AM UTC

Analemma_ wrote: post #7

On this topic, have people noticed the sudden coordinated media push for Flock Is Your Friend? The Free Press, The Atlantic, and Axios have all churned out pro-Flock articles in the last week. Clearly someone (I assume A16Z, but it could be multiple groups) is panicking about the mounting bipartisan backlash to Flock cameras and is starting to write checks to try and head it off.

Follow the money. That also shows which media sources you should never trust

Re: The UK's war on anonymity has come to America

#28

Post by walrus01 » Tue, Aug 11, 2026, 1:03 AM UTC

iamnothere wrote: post #22

Analemma_ wrote: post #7

On this topic, have people noticed the sudden coordinated media push for Flock Is Your Friend? The Free Press, The Atlantic, and Axios have all churned out pro-Flock articles in the last week. Clearly someone (I assume A16Z, but it could be multiple groups) is panicking about the mounting bipartisan backlash to Flock cameras and is starting to write checks to try and head it off.

My theory is that the establishment sees the oncoming economic crisis and is desperately trying to plan for managing the fallout. They don’t like Flock or its backers, but they feel they have no choice. Same as why Palantir is gradually being rehabilitated in the mainstream press. You’ll also notice that Anduril is quickly being accepted now that we’re expending munitions faster than our replacement rate.

> trying to plan for managing the fallout

Put in a less polite way, they're preparing for the metaphorical pitchforks and torches held by mobs of the common people which might manifest themselves in a more kinetic format.

Re: The UK's war on anonymity has come to America

#29

Post by walrus01 » Tue, Aug 11, 2026, 1:07 AM UTC

anigbrowl wrote: post #25

like_any_other wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note how they always ignore parental controls, and skip straight to deanonymize everyone.

Tech people keep ignoring the fact that many people a) find the parental controls too hard to use and b) have no confidence that their kids won't find a way to circumvent them. If parents felt in control of technology they wouldn't be calling on governments to regulate it in the first place. I know a lot of tech people like to assume that government wants to control everything and these parents are fake front groups…

I recently put some thought into what I would have done if I had encountered "parental controls" to use the Internet when I first encountered it as a young teen in 1992. I would have made it my personal mission in life to circumvent everything and anything possible. I feel fortunate that no such controls existed and the adults in my life knew significantly less about the technology than I did.

Was I exposed to some clearly adult content? Yes. But I didn't find it particularly compelling, the video games I could download and other things I could explore were more interesting.

It is also concerning to me that gen-alpha (or whatever the age bracket is called) people are increasingly being pushed into walled garden, app-based social media platforms instead of actually learning what the Internet really is, and what it's capable of.

Re: The UK's war on anonymity has come to America

#30

Post by undersuit » Tue, Aug 11, 2026, 1:08 AM UTC

donw wrote: post #26

matheusmoreira wrote: post #3

> These NGOs have converged upon a unified strategy: use the rhetoric of ‘child safety’ to advocate for digital ID laws that would prevent adults from using the internet anonymously. Of course. Anyone who brings up kids is trying to manipulate you into giving up your freedom for security. Whatever argument they make should be simply ignored and dismissed.

[flagged]

No, we're not going to do anything about climate change.