Theresa May Wants To Regulate The Internet • Hacker News Board

Re: Theresa May Wants To Regulate The Internet

#41

Post by mattkevan » Fri, May 19, 2017, 12:24 PM UTC

As a British citizen, this makes me sick to my stomach.

However, I'm probably in the minority.

A few years ago I went to a debate about the Internet and how it affects families, and it was interesting and rather scary to hear people's attitudes.

It seemed that a lot of people didn't fully understand what the Internet was, asking why it didn't have a watershed [1] like TV does.

Despite good arguments being put forward for freedom and openness, the crowd voted overwhelmingly in favour for heavy censorship and controls.

And now, thanks to Theresa May's band of paternalistic fascists, they're going to get their wish.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watershed_(broadcasting)

Re: Theresa May Wants To Regulate The Internet

#42

Post by sosull » Fri, May 19, 2017, 12:25 PM UTC

arethuza wrote: post #19

kbart wrote: post #8

Heh, of course it can't go without "terrorists" trump card: "the government will work even harder to ensure there is no "safe space for terrorists to be able to communicate online"." It's very sad to see UK becoming closed, police state.

We've had an oppressive police state on and off for decades - the only difference now it isn't just applied to miners or Northern Irish nationalists.

There's only a small list of countries left to subjugate, so it was inevitable that Britain would turn its ambitions inwards.

Re: Theresa May Wants To Regulate The Internet

#43

Post by Lev1a » Fri, May 19, 2017, 12:25 PM UTC

Hmm, what would it take for the major "Internet companies"(which are primarily American) to "cut the cord" to Britain rather than complying with this kind of outrageous overreach?

Genuinely curious.

EDIT: Also,

> The laws would also force technology companies to delete anything that a person posted when they were under 18.

sounds quite literally insane, censoring the speech of people just because they are minors?

Re: Theresa May Wants To Regulate The Internet

#44

Post by kbart » Fri, May 19, 2017, 12:26 PM UTC

insickness wrote: post #37

kbart wrote: post #8

Heh, of course it can't go without "terrorists" trump card: "the government will work even harder to ensure there is no "safe space for terrorists to be able to communicate online"." It's very sad to see UK becoming closed, police state.

But think of the children!

I guess they are saving this as a secret weapon for election next month.

Re: Theresa May Wants To Regulate The Internet

#45

Post by corford » Fri, May 19, 2017, 12:26 PM UTC

Retr0spectrum wrote: post #30

mstade wrote: post #16

Every day there are news coming out of the U.K. that just makes me even happier that I left it. This is no exception.

Which country did you leave to? I'd like to get out of here ASAP.

Suggest you pick one in Europe while it's still easy to do :) I think most EU countries let you apply for full citizenship after being there a while (e.g. France lets you apply after 5 yrs, less if you're married to a French national).

Re: Theresa May Wants To Regulate The Internet

#46

Post by k-mcgrady » Fri, May 19, 2017, 12:26 PM UTC

mstade wrote: post #16

Every day there are news coming out of the U.K. that just makes me even happier that I left it. This is no exception.

I'm torn between getting out and staying and trying to make things better. If we get another Tory government (particularly if they increase their majority) I'll have lost hope.

Re: Theresa May Wants To Regulate The Internet

#47

Post by mtgx » Fri, May 19, 2017, 12:28 PM UTC

imron wrote: post #28

paradite wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious as to which "Chinese example" do you have in mind that doesn't work? Edit to reply to your wifi issue: you need to use that one website to login to access the "full" internet.

The Chinese example where they have tens of thousands of people monitoring internet content and spend millions per year on filtering and blocking technology - and it can all be circumvented with a VPN.

It works "well enough". There will always be a 1% or 0.1% of the population who will be able to circumvent the blockaid, and China will keep arresting the ones it catches in the act.

But the point is it works for the other 99%. The thing about censorship is that you don't know what you were supposed to know. 1% of the population may see those censored articles before the governments gets around to censoring them, but what about the rest of the population? They'll keep living in ignorance of what was revealed and think the government is still great (with some help with the 24/7 propaganda bombardment from the media).

This is also like saying "(in-app) ad-blocking works on Android" - if you know how to root your phone and install it from F-Droid. But for the vast majority of people it doesn't.

Re: Theresa May Wants To Regulate The Internet

#48

Post by kristianc » Fri, May 19, 2017, 12:28 PM UTC

paradite wrote: post #34

imron wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Chinese example where they have tens of thousands of people monitoring internet content and spend millions per year on filtering and blocking technology - and it can all be circumvented with a VPN.

Interesting. So on one side people are bashing the the level of censorship by the government and how people are unable to exercise certain rights. On the other side the same people are laughing at its ineffectiveness and how trivial it is to circumvent them and access information freely. One of them must surely be wrong? Btw, censoring of keywords and blocking of websites are two different issues. VPN solves the latt…

I don't see the tension between saying that the government's intent is to create an all encompassing censorship machine based on what it defines as social harms, and saying that such an endeavour is doomed to fail.

One is about intent, the other is about ability to execute on that intent. In law, we punish people for intent to commit harms if they have gone some of the way towards planning those harms, even if the intended harms do not come to pass.

Re: Theresa May Wants To Regulate The Internet

#49

Post by panglott » Fri, May 19, 2017, 12:28 PM UTC

kristianc wrote: post #7

It does make me laugh as a British citizen when the government touts the use of evidence-based frameworks and its ' nudge' unit and then employs a blunt instrument such as this which is purely legislative and flies in the face of all available evidence. Since the advent of the internet and the accompanying rise of internet porn, sexual irresponsibility, teen sex, rape and divorce have all been in decline. That's to s…

The Great Firewall works amazingly well, if not perfectly well. It is a little leaky at the edges, but certainly influences how a very large proportion of Chinese users experience the Internet.

Re: Theresa May Wants To Regulate The Internet

#50

Post by paradite » Fri, May 19, 2017, 12:28 PM UTC

illuminati1911 wrote: post #39

paradite wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's working exactly as intended. You need a VPN to access certain websites, some keywords are censored properly. How is that an example of not working? So what do you exactly mean by not working?

Chinese government is unable to prevent people accessing prohibited content. Which part is unclear here?

Well it prevents 99% of the people who don't know how or don't bother setting up VPN from accessing prohibited content, that's the intended effect. So I would say it's working well.