VPN use surges in UK as new online safety rules kick in • Hacker News Board

Re: VPN use surges in UK as new online safety rules kick in

#301

Post by kennywinker » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 2:42 PM UTC

everfrustrated wrote: post #288

scrollop wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"suggesting the NHS isn't perfect is against the religion here." Errr, what? A lot of people complain about the NHS, whilst conceding there are issues that are difficult to address eg staff, lack of investment etc.

Complaining is the British pastime so complaining about the NHS is grandfathered in. However if you try and offer any suggestion for improvements to the NHS you soon realise you cannot criticise it in any meaningful form and be decried a blasphemous heretic.

Is your suggestion for improvement just privatization? Because that’d explain the backlash.

Re: VPN use surges in UK as new online safety rules kick in

#302

Post by dmix » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 2:43 PM UTC

12ian34 wrote: post #283

spacebanana7 wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only a small minority of immigrants to the UK come through the skilled visa pathway, even if the health & social care visa numbers were added. See figure 1.3a - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/migration-advisor... Note that to the best of my knowledge, these numbers don't include the Afghan resettlement scheme which would further lower the proportion of employment driven visas.

what about nurses and cleaners

Canada has legal immigration pathways for nurses, I don't see why any other country couldn't if there was strong demand. Gambling on illegal (and dangerous) border crossings to fill those sort of roles seems deeply irresponsible.

Re: VPN use surges in UK as new online safety rules kick in

#303

Post by bendigedig » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 2:45 PM UTC

12ian34 wrote: post #169

password54321 wrote: post #110

Destroy cultural integrity, national identity, create a low-trust society, become more authoritarian to manage low-trust society, import more immigrants at an exponential rate while house costs rise along with unemployment. The list keeps going. This is why far-right is surging on the polls. The country has completely lost all sense.

UK needs immigrants to increase stagnating productivity. this has been the case for decades and it's why no government has done, or will do anything serious to curb it.

Welcome to the sticking plaster economy. This may be the economic orthodoxy, but it completely ignores the root causes of poor productivity - and ultimately leads to the state of xenophobia you're seeing today in Britain.

Re: VPN use surges in UK as new online safety rules kick in

#304

Post by anoncow » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 2:45 PM UTC

Now they will ban VPNs

Re: VPN use surges in UK as new online safety rules kick in

#305

Post by e4325f » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 2:46 PM UTC

gorgoiler wrote: post #63

The VPN trick potentially won’t last long. We’ve seen it go stale already in the world of intellectual property rights. For at least the last ten years Netflix et al have been well aware of which AS numbers / IP netblocks correspond to people sat at home in front of the TV, and which correspond to servers in a rack somewhere (including those hosting VPN endpoints.) One tweak to the rules and all of a sudden not only…

Doesn't make any sense, it's in Netflix's interest to prevent this, but it's the opposite for porn sites.

Re: VPN use surges in UK as new online safety rules kick in

#306

Post by winterismute » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 2:47 PM UTC

areoform wrote: post #241

cs02rm0 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The UK is becoming increasingly authoritarian in ways that feel increasingly antagonistic to the majority of the population, regardless of political party. Taxes are rising (with tax take falling), crimes are going unchecked, just mentioning increased immigration gets a lot of people's backs up, but as GDP per capita continues to stall and even fall, the pressure it puts on services is a factor for many. And we're se…

> Taxes are rising (with tax take falling) > just mentioning increased immigration One of these seems like the solution to the other. > as long as those people leaving are straight, white males, or their families, they're being told "good riddance" regardless of the brain drain and loss of tax income Having UK work experience and having talked to thousands of british folks over a decade, I find this hard to believe.…

I always thought linking all the main things not working in the actual world to the alienation caused by too much digital consumption to be wrong/not really making sense. However, gradually, I am getting closer and closer to that conclusion... In your case, what brought you to the stance "Too much social media is what ails the whole world"? What do you think we could do to solve it?

Re: VPN use surges in UK as new online safety rules kick in

#307

Post by dmix » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 2:48 PM UTC

ByThyGrace wrote: post #247

airhangerf15 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea, it's all about a permanent Digital ID and the end of any independent forums. It's the first essential steps before you get to great firewalls and social credit scores. Remember, Tennessee, Mississippi and Texas already have similar laws in place in the US, so even a nation with better speech and gun laws is still not immune from the slow descent into technocracy.

> Remember, Tennessee, Mississippi and Texas already have similar laws in place in the US Interesting, since when? I'm curious about how it's turned out in practise. For web services I mean. An for anyone hosting a message board or comment section.

The US states are just targeting the big porn sites like Pornhub to add ID checks AFAIK, I haven't heard of them going after random forums like in the UK. But obviously that sort of power always expands, just like how the UK went from arresting a couple people for offensive tweets back in 2010 to doing 12k arrests/yr in 2025

Re: VPN use surges in UK as new online safety rules kick in

#308

Post by throawaywpg » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 2:50 PM UTC

winterismute wrote: post #306

areoform wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Taxes are rising (with tax take falling) > just mentioning increased immigration One of these seems like the solution to the other. > as long as those people leaving are straight, white males, or their families, they're being told "good riddance" regardless of the brain drain and loss of tax income Having UK work experience and having talked to thousands of british folks over a decade, I find this hard to believe.…

I always thought linking all the main things not working in the actual world to the alienation caused by too much digital consumption to be wrong/not really making sense. However, gradually, I am getting closer and closer to that conclusion... In your case, what brought you to the stance "Too much social media is what ails the whole world"? What do you think we could do to solve it?

Get people hooked on local solutions and local social networks that exist "IRL."

Re: VPN use surges in UK as new online safety rules kick in

#309

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 2:50 PM UTC

MangoCoffee wrote: post #243

zaptheimpaler wrote: post #27

Basically every new law, piece of news or media I see coming from the UK paints a picture of a beat-down, cynical & scared society that's complacent to or in support of increasing surveillance and control by the government. Like maybe Adolescence or basically any mention of the NHS. The crimes they cite like child grooming or terrorism/hate being incited sound pretty terrible too, but I wonder why the UK specifically…

Westerners point fingers at China for its Great Firewall, citing a lack of freedom. Being a free society comes with both good and bad. This type of law, whether it's good or bad, is akin to China's Great Firewall

[deleted]

Re: VPN use surges in UK as new online safety rules kick in

#310

Post by nicoburns » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 2:51 PM UTC

riv991 wrote: post #235

mytailorisrich wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's different. Yes, everyone complains about the state of the NHS but the "religion" is that the NHS may not be criticised itself. So it is in a bad state because it does not receive enough money, that's it, nothing else. Any suggestion that the organisation itself might be improved or, god forbid, that patients might pay is indeed usually seen as "blasphemy".

> So it is in a bad state because it does not receive enough money, that's it In real terms the budget is the largest it's ever been, it's a relic of the time when people worked and died shortly (a decade) after retiring, not when they live for 30+ years longer.

> In real terms the budget is the largest it's ever been

Which it needs to be given the demographic changes you note. It's about 15% smaller per capita than comparable countries spend. That would suggest that we need to increase the budget if we want comparable service.