Online Safety Act: What went wrong?

#1

Post by olyellybelly » Fri, Aug 01, 2025, 2:00 PM UTC

Online Safety Act: What went wrong?
therectangle.substack.com

Re: Online Safety Act: What went wrong?

#2

Post by croes » Fri, Aug 01, 2025, 2:37 PM UTC

What went wrong?

For complete safety you need complete surveillance which contradicts complete safety.

Re: Online Safety Act: What went wrong?

#3

Post by Havoc » Fri, Aug 01, 2025, 2:38 PM UTC

>Solving problems in the online world is no longer a technical issue

Unfortunately I have zero faith in UK government having a moment of introspection here.

Instead of realizing it's not fit for purpose they'll double down on the broken approach. Fully expecting the "solution" here to be more regulation, more punishment, more cost, more killing small sites, more inconvenience, more technically unfeasible things (vpn ban).

Have written to my MP about it and unsurprisingly zero response. Useless government

Re: Online Safety Act: What went wrong?

#4

Post by amoe_ » Fri, Aug 01, 2025, 2:39 PM UTC

The knife crime analogy is a bit off, as we already have age restrictions for buying knives in the UK.

Re: Online Safety Act: What went wrong?

#5

Post by snickerdoodle12 » Fri, Aug 01, 2025, 2:39 PM UTC

Politicians listened to the "smart" guys from Google/Apple/Microsoft/Whatever who were there with their own ulterior motives.

Re: Online Safety Act: What went wrong?

#6

Post by exasperaited » Fri, Aug 01, 2025, 2:40 PM UTC

This adds little to the debate.

A really interesting question would be to ask Aylo -- the world's largest pornographer -- why they are complying with the UK law and working with the regulator (population ~70M), but blocking whole states in response to the French law (population ~70M also) and Texas (population ~30M).

Because there obviously is some nuance and realpolitik here, when Aylo could very easily just block the UK too.

Has anyone done this journalism?

Re: Online Safety Act: What went wrong?

#7

Post by _joel » Fri, Aug 01, 2025, 2:41 PM UTC

Seems as though, if anything, the government are doubling down on it. I swear Labour are speedrunning "How to become the most hated party". I thought it'd take a bit longer than a year, but here we are.

Re: Online Safety Act: What went wrong?

#8

Post by rokkamokka » Fri, Aug 01, 2025, 2:45 PM UTC

exasperaited wrote: post #6

This adds little to the debate. A really interesting question would be to ask Aylo -- the world's largest pornographer -- why they are complying with the UK law and working with the regulator (population ~70M), but blocking whole states in response to the French law (population ~70M also) and Texas (population ~30M). Because there obviously is some nuance and realpolitik here, when Aylo could very easily just block t…

Perhaps they earn more from the UK market? Or decided it was easier to comply with that specific law.

Re: Online Safety Act: What went wrong?

#9

Post by alexisread » Fri, Aug 01, 2025, 2:45 PM UTC

It's mostly deliberate. Current petition to revoke it has half a million signatures, and the government have stated they will ignore that.

Censorship is one of the advantages they like: https://freespeechunion.org/protest-footage-blocked-as-onlin...

Re: Online Safety Act: What went wrong?

#10

Post by implements » Fri, Aug 01, 2025, 2:48 PM UTC

Any device with a Government service (eg NHS) or a Banking app knows who and old the primary user is, so seems the obvious technological solution is some kind of securely anonymous attestation that websites can request from the OS.