Meanwhile, British Transport Police are about to start rolling out Live Facial Recognition at London railway stations: https://www.btp.police.uk/news/btp/news/england/british-tran...
UK House of Lords attempting to ban use of VPNs by anyone under 16
151–160 of 499 posts
Re: UK House of Lords attempting to ban use of VPNs by anyone under 16
#152Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Keep in mind the UK already arrests and imprisons vast numbers of people for speech offences I think you’ve been spending too much time on Twitter
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/article/police-make-30-arr... > Officers from 37 police forces made 12,183 arrests in 2023, the equivalent of about 33 per day. This marks an almost 58 per cent rise in arrests since before the pandemic. In 2019, forces logged 7,734 detentions.
In England and Wales there are 85k people serving custodial sentences and 250k community sentences. 12k seems significant, if true.
Re: UK House of Lords attempting to ban use of VPNs by anyone under 16
#153It's also worth stating that the worst part of that proposed amendment [1] isn't even necessarily the VPN ban, it's the next clause, on page 20: "The “CSAM requirement” is that any relevant device supplied for use in the UK must have installed tamper-proof system software which is highly effective at preventing the recording, transmitting (by any means, including livestreaming) and viewing of CSAM using that device."…
> Apple, what did you start?
They're probably thrilled with themselves because everything will have to be closed, locked down platforms and devices.
IMO the solution to child safety is education with strong user controls. Hell, just delete the social media apps from existence if the other option is dystopian control of our communications.
Re: UK House of Lords attempting to ban use of VPNs by anyone under 16
#154Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is based on statistics for the Malicious Communications Act. That includes people sending, for example, threatening messages to an ex partner. Not all of them are online posts, in fact probably a minority
How many arrests does it take to chill free speech?
How many were for politcal speech as opposed to say threatening to murder someone?
Re: UK House of Lords attempting to ban use of VPNs by anyone under 16
#155Earlier quoted context omitted.
> any relevant device supplied for use in the UK must have installed tamper-proof system software It's happening. Computer freedom, everything the word "hacker" ever stood for, will be officially destroyed if this passes. We're about to be robbed of control over our computers by force of law . It's just the UK now but eventually it will be every country. This is a very dark day. I've been prophesizing its arrival for…
I wouldn't give up. When it gets to the level of mandatory government rootkits there are bound to be underground organisations circumventing this and/or trading old hardware. I'd even go as far to say that if things become this authoritarian, certain "direct" acts would be justified in preventing or fighting it.
An illegitimate underground scene running on life support, using old unlocked computers which are a finite resource they will eventually run out of. Utterly depressing... We used to be free...
If this passes, the only strategic move available is to somehow develop the ability to make our own computer processors in our garages. Billion dollar fabs are single points of failure and they will be exploited, subverted, regulated and controlled. The only possible solution is to democratize and decentralize semiconductor manufacturing to the point anyone can do it. We must be able to make free computer hardware at home just like we can make free computer software at home.
Anything short of this and it's over.
Re: UK House of Lords attempting to ban use of VPNs by anyone under 16
#156Earlier quoted context omitted.
> While figures show that the total number of arrests for online posts fell to 9,700 last year, down from a record 13,800 in 2023... https://freespeechunion.org/daily-mail-investigation-exposes...
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People do get imprisoned for "terrorist speech" to my best knowledge. Up to 15 years prison time if I understand the law correctly
Re: UK House of Lords attempting to ban use of VPNs by anyone under 16
#157Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Keep in mind the UK already arrests and imprisons vast numbers of people for speech offences I think you’ve been spending too much time on Twitter
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/article/police-make-30-arr... > Officers from 37 police forces made 12,183 arrests in 2023, the equivalent of about 33 per day. This marks an almost 58 per cent rise in arrests since before the pandemic. In 2019, forces logged 7,734 detentions.
This article really doesn't go into what the communication was about. They have some anecdata, but once you go into 10k+ of examples, you're almost guaranteed to get mistakes. Maybe the situation is bad overall, but that article really doesn't show it.
Re: UK House of Lords attempting to ban use of VPNs by anyone under 16
#158Earlier quoted context omitted.
>It's so organic and grass roots It is though. This is one of the few surveillance issues actually driven by grassroots organisations like ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_Shout ) in particular when it comes to adult content who have been at this globally for well over a decade. There's no shadowy cabal trying to age-restrict porn or social media, this is more like a modern day Carrie Nation. Puritanism alw…
Sorry, which grass roots group exactly campaigned for this? Which party’s manifesto was it on?
"Never let a good crisis go to waste."
The "think of the children!" argument has long been used by people in government to give themselves more power. In this case there's been a global effort to shut down unapproved speech. The government gains the power to censor and arrest for "bad speech" but it also gets to decide how the labels for the same are applied. There have been panel discussions and speeches on this at the WEF, and discussions of tactics for selling or pushing through this kind of legislation for at least a decade.
That's how we got that video of John Kerry lamenting the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment.
So under the aegis of "think of the children!" (which may or may not have come from "grass roots" organizations) you get a committee with the power to decide what speech is badthink or wrongthink, label it as such, and hand out arrest warrants for it.
Disagree with policy: that's "hate" or "misinformation" or "inflammatory."
Voice a moral opinion: that's "hate" or "bigotry" or "intolerance."
Express doubt over a leader's actions: that's "misinformation" or "inflammatory."
Fascinating that they're more worried about VPN use than about shutting down rape gangs.
Re: UK House of Lords attempting to ban use of VPNs by anyone under 16
#159Why does it seem like all this age-restriction and the consequential VPN bans are happening across the west all at once?
Re: UK House of Lords attempting to ban use of VPNs by anyone under 16
#160Earlier quoted context omitted.
Probably the media that shows the UK locking up old ladies and people in wheelchairs for speaking out publicly against ongoing UK support for genocide (among other "speech offenses").
You might be missing some important context, namely that they’re doing so under the guise of a proscribed organisation.
> proscribed orgnanization
That doesn't change the context. A different justification doesn't change the practical effect. The curtailing of speech is discussed as problematic by many of the residents openly. I certainly have had an earful touring across the entirety of the isles.