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EU Parliamentary Research Service calls VPNs "a loophole that needs closing"

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Re: EU Parliamentary Research Service calls VPNs "a loophole that needs closing"

#11

Post by zeroonetwothree »

jraby3 wrote: post #5
chii wrote: post #2

How come tax loopholes aren't as scrutinized? Mandatory age verification online is a blight imho. It should be outlawed.

Why? Isn't your age verified when you renew your drivers license? Purchase something on Amazon? When I was a kid, child programming and commercials were heavily scrutinized. Now any kid can access porn, violence, and scams on the internet. That's a blight. Not age verification.

I don’t understand, did broadcast TV or cable do age verification? Surely kids could watch content that was for adults very easily.

Re: EU Parliamentary Research Service calls VPNs "a loophole that needs closing"

#12

Post by LaurensBER »

SilverElfin wrote: post #4

Ugh. Here we go again. Europe’s politicians just cannot stop with wanting to control everyone and everything. It’s as if bureaucracy is the actual goal. Privacy and anonymity should be protected by law. Not violated by law.

I listen to a bunch of (mostly left) podcasts where they sometimes invite members of the European parlement and while I can agree with some of their opinions its downright scary how they think about regulations.

For everything that's wrong in society the answer seems to be more and more regulations. The negative effects (such as the lack of European AI companies) are then waved away (it's because Europe spends their money on American AI instead of investing in EU AI).

It's honestly scary.

Re: EU Parliamentary Research Service calls VPNs "a loophole that needs closing"

#13

Post by donmcronald »

applfanboysbgon wrote: post #8

Ah yes, the most pressing issue of our times. Mandatory surveillance of every person's activities is a reasonable solution to the critical issue of teenagers watching porn, who totally won't be able to bypass this by... grabbing Dad's phone. Obviously, it's not about the children. It was never about the children. If I had my way every one of these people would be taken to a gulag, because they are evil, have evil int…

All accounts and that are important to kids have are being tied to their real identity and they won’t be able to get a new one if they’re banned. The potential for social engineering is insane.

All of these ID laws are going to make it more dangerous for kids online IMO.

“Hi I’m a Roblox moderator. Your account was reported for X and you’ve been temp banned. Come to platform Y to appeal. Start by submitting all your personal info and a selfie.”

And it’ll be completely normalized by big tech. Seriously. WTF are they thinking?

Re: EU Parliamentary Research Service calls VPNs "a loophole that needs closing"

#14

Post by spwa4 »

vkou wrote: post #6
chii wrote: post #2

How come tax loopholes aren't as scrutinized? Mandatory age verification online is a blight imho. It should be outlawed.

What makes you think they aren't? The Double-Irish-Dutch-Sandwich in particular was cracked down on.

To be replaced by the Irish tax department making direct deals that are essentially the same. But ONLY for specific companies (principle: big multinationals don't pay tax at all, local companies get big tax raises. Irish companies are dying, multinationals are moving to Ireland)

https://taxsummaries.pwc.com/ireland/corporate/tax-credits-a...

In case anyone wonders: this means the FANG companies don't pay tax in Ireland if they hire enough people in Ireland, which has famously high income tax. It is, in other words, effectively a massive tax increase on the employees while actually reducing total tax income in the EU compared to the "double dutch sandwich".

Note that Ireland signed at least 2 international treaties that they weren't going to do this (OECD minimum tax treaty, EU tax treaty). Of course, there are no consequences to this.

The response to is that EU is exploring company-tax-per-transaction which is so incredibly bad in the massive administrative burden it will generate. It's not final, but it will mean that for every transaction done companies will have to keep (PER transaction) pieces (plural) of evidence for what country they happened in. Every single transaction.

https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/projects-and-acti...

Re: EU Parliamentary Research Service calls VPNs "a loophole that needs closing"

#15

Post by tmjwid »

jraby3 wrote: post #5
chii wrote: post #2

How come tax loopholes aren't as scrutinized? Mandatory age verification online is a blight imho. It should be outlawed.

Why? Isn't your age verified when you renew your drivers license? Purchase something on Amazon? When I was a kid, child programming and commercials were heavily scrutinized. Now any kid can access porn, violence, and scams on the internet. That's a blight. Not age verification.

As a kid, you never found a stack of porno magazines in the woods did you?

Re: EU Parliamentary Research Service calls VPNs "a loophole that needs closing"

#16

Post by JV00 »

Perhaps these legislators are addicted to porn and don't want their children to do to themselves the same they have done. Would explain their obsession and relentlessness to get this done.

It's just a pity they are destroying the internet while doing that. They should be attacking the companies making money from porn instead.

And by the way porn can damage your mind even after 18 so age verification is not a real solution anyway.

Re: EU Parliamentary Research Service calls VPNs "a loophole that needs closing"

#18

Post by kaliqt »

jraby3 wrote: post #5
chii wrote: post #2

How come tax loopholes aren't as scrutinized? Mandatory age verification online is a blight imho. It should be outlawed.

Why? Isn't your age verified when you renew your drivers license? Purchase something on Amazon? When I was a kid, child programming and commercials were heavily scrutinized. Now any kid can access porn, violence, and scams on the internet. That's a blight. Not age verification.

That’s the job of parents. No exceptions. OP is right, it needs to be outlawed.

Re: EU Parliamentary Research Service calls VPNs "a loophole that needs closing"

#19

Post by qnpnpmqppnp »

This title seems misleading.

The EP paper appears to be highlighting the existence of a debate regarding VPN.

Relevant quote:

"Some argue that this is a loophole in the legislation that needs closing and call for age verification to be required for VPNs as well. In response, some VPN providers argue that they do not share information with third parties and state that their services are not intended for use by children in the first place. The Children's Commissioner for England has called for VPNs to be restricted to adult use only.

While privacy advocates argue that imposing age-verification requirements on VPNs would pose significant risk to anonymity and date protection, child-safety campaigners claim that their widespread use by minors requires a regulatory response. Pornhub and other large pornography platforms have reportedly lost web traffic following the enforcement of age-verification rules in the UK, while VPN apps have reached the top of download rankings."

Of course I'm not saying the EU won't regulate VPNs, but nowhere in this paper is "the EU" stating that VPNs need closing.

Re: EU Parliamentary Research Service calls VPNs "a loophole that needs closing"

#20

Post by patrickk »

donmcronald wrote: post #10

I think all the identity verification schemes should start with the beneficial owners of companies. Governments have been lobbied to allow complete anonymity for the wealthy that own businesses doing questionable things while regular people are going to have to show id to buy food.

Shell companies for the ruling class, ever decreasing anonymity for the peasants.
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