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

#311

Post by throawaywpg » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 2:52 PM UTC

cs02rm0 wrote: post #62

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…

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…

Why stay in a declining 1st word country when you can move to Bulgaria and live like a king?

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

#312

Post by dmix » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 2:53 PM UTC

rdm_blackhole wrote: post #152

grishka wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is how it worked out in Russia. First, around 10 years ago, they adopted very limited laws that required ISPs to block websites. Things like drugs and suicide, with the classic rationale "won't someone please think of the children". Then piracy websites were added to that. Fast forward to now, ISPs were mandated to install black-box "ТСПУ" devices on their networks, "to protect against threats", so now Roskomnad…

At least in Russia and in china, the governments don't pretend that what they are doing is to save the children(TM) whereas in the west we like to drape our authoritarian tendencies under such false pretenses.

Did you miss there part where OP said that was how it started in Russia? The same is happening in the west.

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

#313

Post by winterismute » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 2:53 PM UTC

pyman wrote: post #296

graemep wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am certainly surprised by that suggestion. No one I know who has lived in France or Germany or any developed country other than the US thinks the NHS is better than the systems in those countries.

I've heard from Spanish friends living in the UK that the NHS is so bad, they fly back to Spain for medical checks and even to see the dentist. That's mind blowing.

Living in the UK but being from another EU country, I definitely see that happening. However, a lot of times it is just due to habits, wrongly-placed mistrust, or not being well settled-in yet because, at the end of the day, there are eg. better GPs and worse GPs everywhere in the world, but if you are still "new" to the country you simply do not know which ones are which, so you prefer to go to the ones you know already.

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

#314

Post by pyman » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 2:54 PM UTC

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…

Regulating porn, guns, gambling, tobacco, and alcohol has nothing to do with authoritarianism or a lack of freedom. It's about protecting people, just like we already do with seatbelts, speed limits, and food safety.

Why do you think shops ask for proof of age when you buy cigarettes? Not because they care about cancer or want to sell less, it's because they're required to by law. Of course, teenagers can still find workarounds. They can ask an older friend to buy it for them, just like they can use a VPN to access porn.

The difference is, regulation shifts accountability. It moves the responsibility from a greedy, insensitive business owner to the kids. And at least with the kids we can guide them, and help them spend their time and money where it actually matters.

Note: I know people who love guns or porn are probably going to downvote this, but someone has to say it.

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

#315

Post by h3half » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 2:55 PM UTC

ricardobeat wrote: post #264

kelsey98765431 wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is just a cat a mouse game. VPN services will start to offer residential endpoints when enough websites start blocking them enough to damage the value proposition. There is no way on the current internet to verify an ip address means anything at all other than it's an ip address.

There is no way to offer “residential endpoints” at scale with sufficient bandwidth for anything other than simple browsing of text websites. As shown by the very effective Netflix strategy of blocking VPN addresses, it’s been very hard to slip through for a good four or five years now.

As someone totally uninformed, are you saying that all those YouTube ads about e.g. Private Internet Access (et al), which specifically cite getting around geo restrictions in the ad copy, are BS?

Which sounds like a silly question ("of course the marketing is BS") but why even bother marketing if the core value proposition of your billed-monthly service doesn't work? Seems like a waste of money since you'll at most get people for one month when they cancel after realizing they can't watch Canadian Netflix from Florida, or whatever.

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

#316

Post by vidarh » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 2:55 PM UTC

ap99 wrote: post #240

mijoharas wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but suggesting the NHS isn't perfect is against the religion here I don't know anyone that doesn't complain about the state of the NHS. The only time I've heard anyone defending it would be when compared to countries without national healthcare (e.g. America).

I'm an American living in London and I'd gladly return to the US just for the healthcare. Granted I'm in tech so that's steady employment with benefits, but there you go.

Nothing stops you from getting private healthcare here and still end up paying a fraction of the average per capita cost for Americans - the NHS costs about the same per capita as Medicare + Medicaid, and private health insurance is overall cheaper in the UK, because they "fall back" on using the NHS as a first line.

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

#317

Post by 12ian34 » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 2:59 PM UTC

bendigedig wrote: post #303

12ian34 wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I don't disagree

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

#318

Post by vidarh » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 2:59 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.

It's still one of the cheapest healthcare systems among similarly wealthy countries per capita - it's seriously underfunded.

To bring it to a comparable level to similarly wealthy countries would take an increase in funding of 20%-30%.

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

#319

Post by GlitchRider47 » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 2:59 PM UTC

alextingle wrote: post #258

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.

> The country has completely lost all sense. This is why far-right is surging on the polls. Fixed that for you.

I don't think your modification really changes anything from the original comment.

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

#320

Post by mitthrowaway2 » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 3:00 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.

How does immigration boost productivity? It's labor-saving automation and machinery investments that boost productivity. I would expect these to be driven mainly by labour scarcity. Growing the labour pool seems like it would drive exactly the opposite. As two examples, Japan has low immigration and an aging population and despite that its productivity has never been higher. By contrast Canada has had extremely high immigration and rapid population growth, and its productivity has flatlined since 2019.