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VPN ban update for UK households as government looks at 'age-gate'

birminghammail.co.uk

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Re: VPN ban update for UK households as government looks at 'age-gate'

#361

Post by Symbiote »

pigpop wrote: post #198
Symbiote wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There has been 15 more years of highly motivated psychologists tuning their social media systems to create addiction, time for those who've grown up through this to become adults, foreign interference with democracy etc. Though I think banning it for children is the wrong approach. Ban the addictive and dangerous features for everyone, adults included — no more infinite scroll, and no more feeds showing content from…

> no more feeds showing content from outside social connections So, kill all news agencies and reporters I guess? or would there be a carve out for incumbents so they can cement their market share? who controls the approval list?

They get no special treatment. They would only show up in my feed if one of my contacts shares a link.

Re: VPN ban update for UK households as government looks at 'age-gate'

#362

Post by Alpha3031 »

subscribed wrote: post #333
rustcleaner wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Come iToddlers and the Samstung, Pixel [soon Motorola] with GrapheneOS is the way!

I'm writing it from GoS device, CC can be accessed by the apps. There's plenty on the roadmap from what I see, although this phone is infinitely better than with the standard OS.

Hmm, would it be possible to avoid it by using no SIM in the device and WiFi/VoIP only (whether mobile hotspot or some fixed internet)? It would mean an extra device to carry around but if country detection by native apps is in your threat model...

Re: VPN ban update for UK households as government looks at 'age-gate'

#363

Post by inigyou »

kyboren wrote: post #353
inigyou wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just like we destroyed unrestricted tobacco stores

Nobody has a right to unrestricted tobacco stores. Everybody has a right to free speech, and free speech frequently requires anonymous speech. This is why the protection of journalists' sources is so important, and why principled journalists are willing to go to jail to protect them. You yearn for the end and couldn't care less about the means. But there are also those who couldn't care less about the end, but yearn…

Why don't I have a right to unrestricted tobacco stores and gambling?

Pornography is a form of speech btw.

Re: VPN ban update for UK households as government looks at 'age-gate'

#364

Post by dryarzeg »

yurish wrote: post #358
dryarzeg wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which will get blocked and go down, like, in no time. That's literally what happened in Russia - Tor is mostly unusable, you can't even bootstrap properly without some "tricks", so to speak.

Don't know, I use tor every day in Russia. Without it Internet would be unusable. The only problem I see is how to get initial distribution since the tor site is blocked.

Hmm... That's interesting. Maybe that depends on ISP, because my friends have told me they can't use Tor because they can't even bootstrap, even if they're using bridges.

Re: VPN ban update for UK households as government looks at 'age-gate'

#365

Post by dryarzeg »

alexjameson wrote: post #287
dryarzeg wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Change the protocols, I guess? Move to some kind of self-hosted or community-run infrastructure? Because to block all of that (EDIT: to block that reliably, I mean), you will have to block the entire EU network sector, and we're likely not in "V for Vendetta" or full-blown 1984 scenario for this to be possible.

Let me tell you how it has been in Russia during last 15 years. WE saw targeted blocks that apply after cease and desist letters. Later they learned to block outgoing OpenVPN and wireguard for everybody except firms who applied to a special registry. Then they learned to cut Vless and Trojan and blocked all sites behind freaking Cloudflare due to ECH v3.0 enforced. Here also go proxies (specifically for Telegram'm MT…

I know all of that. I'm a native Russian speaker and I have quite a lot of Russian friends, I'm pretty well aware of the situation. Nevertheless, despite all the government’s efforts and the enormous amount of money invested in this, there are still - at least for now - ways to bypass the blocks even there. I suspect that as long as they don’t physically cut the cables, there will always be ways to circumvent censorship. And yes, I’m not talking about carrier pigeons :)

So I hope that in the UK and other European countries, by drawing on Russia’s existing experience, people will be able to adapt to these restrictions before they become too severe. Of course, the government could also adopt Russia’s approach right away, but that’s unlikely, as it would provoke far too much resistance from citizens - they aren’t used to that level of restriction. If Europe does indeed continue moving in this direction, everything will happen gradually, just as it did in Russia; no one will roast a frog with a flamethrower - they’ll cook it according to the classic recipe, so to speak.

Re: VPN ban update for UK households as government looks at 'age-gate'

#366

Post by yurish »

dryarzeg wrote: post #364
yurish wrote: post #358

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't know, I use tor every day in Russia. Without it Internet would be unusable. The only problem I see is how to get initial distribution since the tor site is blocked.

Hmm... That's interesting. Maybe that depends on ISP, because my friends have told me they can't use Tor because they can't even bootstrap, even if they're using bridges.

I changed ISPs when moved from one city to another, no difference. Yes, there were several episodes when connecting required about half an hour of playing changing setting but eventually I could connect. Nowadays it seems that the government abandoned their efforts to block Tor traffic and mainly focused on blocking VPN and Telegram.

Re: VPN ban update for UK households as government looks at 'age-gate'

#367

Post by TeMPOraL »

iamnothere wrote: post #323
TeMPOraL wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Every reader, at least from the same city, gets exactly the same content That alone is a value add people don't realize even as they're losing it: it created a shared reality you and locals inhabited, that you could have a conversation about.

It also helped quite a bit with narrative enforcement.

Maybe. But then at least there was a narrative, which is valuable in itself.

Re: VPN ban update for UK households as government looks at 'age-gate'

#368

Post by subscribed »

kalleboo wrote: post #355
subscribed wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the mobile apps can check your SIMs country code. This is how bluesky knows the UK users (they used to use IP, not anymore)

On iOS, the CTCarrier calls for SIM info were deprecated back in iOS 16 and now just return blank data. What they can check is which region of App Store they were installed from.

Yeah, that's an ideal situation. The devs say they're going to eventually fix that, but their priority is the device security, not privacy.

I checked mine and it's a little bit weird - even with the physical Sim disabled and esim (from another country) enabled, it was returning physical sim data.

There's hope tho.

Re: VPN ban update for UK households as government looks at 'age-gate'

#369

Post by subscribed »

Alpha3031 wrote: post #362
subscribed wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm writing it from GoS device, CC can be accessed by the apps. There's plenty on the roadmap from what I see, although this phone is infinitely better than with the standard OS.

Hmm, would it be possible to avoid it by using no SIM in the device and WiFi/VoIP only (whether mobile hotspot or some fixed internet)? It would mean an extra device to carry around but if country detection by native apps is in your threat model...

Well, sure.

Re: VPN ban update for UK households as government looks at 'age-gate'

#370

Post by alexjameson »

dryarzeg wrote: post #365
alexjameson wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let me tell you how it has been in Russia during last 15 years. WE saw targeted blocks that apply after cease and desist letters. Later they learned to block outgoing OpenVPN and wireguard for everybody except firms who applied to a special registry. Then they learned to cut Vless and Trojan and blocked all sites behind freaking Cloudflare due to ECH v3.0 enforced. Here also go proxies (specifically for Telegram'm MT…

I know all of that. I'm a native Russian speaker and I have quite a lot of Russian friends, I'm pretty well aware of the situation. Nevertheless, despite all the government’s efforts and the enormous amount of money invested in this, there are still - at least for now - ways to bypass the blocks even there. I suspect that as long as they don’t physically cut the cables, there will always be ways to circumvent censors…

OK, got it. But it's important to remember that avoiding restrictions gets harder and harder every year. You have to juggle several protocols, have backup proxies, think about TLS nuances, keep in mind that you are being tracked after all. Lots of casual users just gave up. It's not like we find a solution and it just works — one has to adapt to new restrictive measures continuously.

I just don't understand why some other people in such discussions still think that its only about children and weigh pro and cons when they have an actual example of all these things being implemented.

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