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UK to require ID or face scan before you can make social media accounts

bleepingcomputer.com

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Re: UK to require ID or face scan before you can make social media accounts

#41

Post by SoftTalker »

palmotea wrote: post #25
cjs_ac wrote: post #9

Of course, it'll be possible to circumvent this with a VPN or a proxy. So what this will achieve is it will reduce the number of British muggles on social media, thus bringing us a bit closer to the Good Old Days when only nerds were online. I'm fine with this. This comment was brought to you by the British Class System: Making Nanny Proud.

> So what this will achieve is it will reduce the number of British muggles on social media, thus bringing us a bit closer to the Good Old Days when only nerds were online. I'm fine with this. I think you have a skewed and inaccurate understanding. Why would "British muggles" be so up in arms over an ID check that they swear off social media if they can't "circumvent this with a VPN or a proxy"? It's not like everyon…

I'm in a state that PornHub and most of the other adult sites will block due to age restriction laws. I'm not going to make a login, or give them my ID, and I'm not motivated enough to use a VPN or otherwise work around the restrictions... so I guess the law achieved its goals. I don't think I'd bend over backwards to keep access to social media either. It's really not that important.

Re: UK to require ID or face scan before you can make social media accounts

#42

Post by Someone1234 »

cjs_ac wrote: post #9

Of course, it'll be possible to circumvent this with a VPN or a proxy. So what this will achieve is it will reduce the number of British muggles on social media, thus bringing us a bit closer to the Good Old Days when only nerds were online. I'm fine with this. This comment was brought to you by the British Class System: Making Nanny Proud.

Which is why the UK Government is currently discussing restricting VPNs behind real-ID style verification too.

So all of the legit providers will be required to collect ID, and anyone not willing to will be funnelled onto the sketchy providers; which I'm sure won't backfire at all...

Re: UK to require ID or face scan before you can make social media accounts

#43

Post by Havoc »

The UK gov's approach to internet regulation is absolutely cancerous.

Fully expect pretty much all countries to follow suit though. The "think of the children" angle to force dystopian surveillance is just too neat of a trick to resist. It functionally can't be defeated. No politician is ever going to stand up against it because it risks "oh so you're in favour of harm to children".

The strategy is equal parts brilliant and evil

Re: UK to require ID or face scan before you can make social media accounts

#44

Post by feurio »

7tflutter7 wrote: post #22
thg wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The UK left the EU years ago.

But the entire EU is implementing stuff like this. Gov ID's, backdoors (swiss article 50a), etc.

> But the entire EU is implementing stuff like this. Gov ID's, backdoors (swiss article 50a), etc.

Switzerland isn't in the EU, though.

Re: UK to require ID or face scan before you can make social media accounts

#47

Post by amelius »

filoleg wrote: post #35
amelius wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Of course, it'll be possible to circumvent this with a VPN or a proxy. Not if they can make Apple forbid this.

> Not if they can make Apple forbid this. I mean, even in China, Apple users can still use VPN to get around the great firewall. And that's despite the fact that their government already imposed quite a few extra requirements on Apple in terms of iPhones sold in the country + any China-based accounts. I also don't think that any of it really applies to general purpose computers at all there (as opposed to smartphones…

> I mean, even in China

And Iran?

Re: UK to require ID or face scan before you can make social media accounts

#48

Post by bilekas »

It was never going to stop at just adult sites, and it won't stop with social media. I see s world where the ISP will be required to check your ID and "verify your age" because people were using vpn to circumvent these.

Then it's not a stretch to see the government requiring all good citizens to "check in" with the government every month like someone out on parole.

It would be exactly what they would love and like the frog that slowly boils, I believe they'll get it.

Re: UK to require ID or face scan before you can make social media accounts

#49

Post by azalemeth »

Someone1234 wrote: post #42
cjs_ac wrote: post #9

Of course, it'll be possible to circumvent this with a VPN or a proxy. So what this will achieve is it will reduce the number of British muggles on social media, thus bringing us a bit closer to the Good Old Days when only nerds were online. I'm fine with this. This comment was brought to you by the British Class System: Making Nanny Proud.

Which is why the UK Government is currently discussing restricting VPNs behind real-ID style verification too. So all of the legit providers will be required to collect ID, and anyone not willing to will be funnelled onto the sketchy providers; which I'm sure won't backfire at all...

I think it's worth mentioning the likes of tor, lokinet, yggdrasil, i2p, freenet and maybe other "esoteric" forms of networking like vless or v2ray. If they really do put significant barriers in the way of nerd-to-nerd communication, other metrics will only grow really.

At the moment, it's network effects that are the biggest deterrent to using these technologies -- at the moment I don't want to browse eepsites or .loki domains at the moment although I think the technology is interesting -- because the use cases are "normal" consensual porn, horrific illegal porn / CSAM, illegal drugs, and organised crime, none of which are me. If they manage to drive even 0.1% of the population towards talking about, say, cat pictures, unreal tournament matches (gamer-to-gamer communication is itself banned under these proposals without age verification!), or something that normal nerds would like, then (a) the popularity of these methods would explode; (b) the ability of law enforcement to surveil them as proxies for genuinely bad stuff would be significantly hampered; and (c) I think the net result is that more people would be exposed tangentially at least to criminality than before.

It's a shockingly short-sighted proposal. I wrote to my MP about it; her response was basically "We have a difference of opinion".

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