"The plans will allow Britain to become 'the global leader in the regulation of the use of personal data and the internet', the manifesto claims."
It is so sad that a government thinks this is something to be proud of.
Theresa May Wants To Regulate The Internet
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Re: Theresa May Wants To Regulate The Internet
#62As much as I expect nanny-state behaviour from the Tory's this has blown me away. I thought the author may be exaggerating so I went and actually read the manifesto. It's only about one page near the end but it reads like something you'd expect from a dictatorial regime. It seems like after cutting us off from Europe via Brexit the government now wants to cut us off from the rest of the world. I just hope internet co…
Which page are you referring to? I'd like to read but don't have time for the whole manifesto right now and I couldn't find it!
Re: Theresa May Wants To Regulate The Internet
#63Earlier 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…
The problem is that it suppresses the majority of ordinary people but the people who actually want to do the stuff the government is trying to stop can still keep doing it anyway.
> Btw, censoring of keywords and blocking of websites are two different issues. VPN solves the latter, not the former.
So in China, they block access to foreign apps like Twitter, Facebook and so on, and so people gravitate towards the home grown alternatives - which are required by government to censor keywords and content.
Also, China does dynamic blocking of websites based on keywords and other things.
It's both very sophisticated and trivial to bypass.
Re: Theresa May Wants To Regulate The Internet
#64I hate to repeat myself, but 1984 was not a how-to manual. At least in the US we have the pesky Constitution, which at least makes this sort of thing more difficult, but of course not impossible as we are seeing with the FCC.
Re: Theresa May Wants To Regulate The Internet
#65Earlier 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?
That's meaning-less - Use police as an analogy.
Police forces are unable to prevent people from committing crimes.
True - But police forces are phenomenally capable at both stopping a lot of people from committing crimes, and dissuading people from even thinking about committing crimes.
They also raise the barrier of entry (so to speak) for being criminal.
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In today's day and age, a great firewall will work. The average person does NOT have the patience or inclination to go figure out a VPN. Heck I couldn't be arsed, and I am dramatically more capable than the average person.
But there's an additional risk you should consider.
Great firewalls are content to let the minority get away with accessing other sites, as long as they don't make themselves a nuisance.
Instead, they train the Average person, and the average populace to behave in a particular manner.
And that shift means that future generations of tinkerers, thinkers are the ones which will start out far removed from a natural set of ideas.
Re: Theresa May Wants To Regulate The Internet
#66UK continues to self-immolate its economy
Re: Theresa May Wants To Regulate The Internet
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
No, both can be right. Censorship can be ineffective, but circumventing it may still put your name on some list. And once you do get charged with something, that fact can easily come up. Also, VPNs are usually leaky. You can trivially identify many protocols, even under encryption. There was some researcher recently (sorry, can't find the link) identifying which movie is being streamed over encrypted link. Some netwo…
So basically you are arguing that censorship is still effective in the sense that it serves as a deterrence and the base for other forms of tracking. And that would certainly harm freedom of speech in certain ways. So you are still supporting the idea that censorship is effective.
Re: Theresa May Wants To Regulate The Internet
#68The British appear to be working hard on implementing a Putinesque information and media control policy. Just instead of acting openly totalitarian they attempt to play the role of mother that knows whats best for all the poor silly adult children. They are forcing their moral values on everyone whether they like it or not.
This is ironic coming from a state that is so loath to offend that they ignored Rotherham and similar incidents.
They are actively working on killing their financial industry via brexit and this policy if implemented will go a long way towards accomplishing the same in regards to their technology industry.
Re: Theresa May Wants To Regulate The Internet
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
On the other hand, it blocks 0% of people who have the intent to access that content so it doesn't really work at all for the people it's supposed to stop.
Re: Theresa May Wants To Regulate The Internet
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
According to stats I found, it prevents https://www.statista.com/statistics/301204/top-markets-vpn-p...
Edit: another one is pretty close as well: http://insight.globalwebindex.net/chart-of-the-day-90-millio...
And that's just people who explicitly use it. With that kind of market penetration basically everyone knows what to do, or who to ask if they want to access some geoblocked service in the future.