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Imgur pulls out of UK as data watchdog threatens fine

express.co.uk

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Re: Imgur pulls out of UK as data watchdog threatens fine

#481

Post by ben_w »

DeepSeaTortoise wrote: post #432
ben_w wrote: post #341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do I detect some sarcasm in that response? If so, why? The Internet is literally just a communications protocol, adding a chat system on top of that it is not difficult. Nor even was it when Skype and IRC were made (by Europeans). SMS (also European) was slightly harder to invent because that's not on the internet.

The technical aspects of the software aren't the problem. Convincing enough people to adopt your app before you're getting a great deal on a 20sqft studio apartment is.

Yes, and?

This is a response to a hypothetical where every single existing (or possibly just US) chat provider leaves the EU, and I'm saying the claim that this will cause any degree of pain whatsoever to the EU population is ridiculous because the replacements are far too trivial to not immediately replace the US apps.

Re: Imgur pulls out of UK as data watchdog threatens fine

#482

Post by specproc »

cs02rm0 wrote: post #408

I don't think these laws are being made with the will of the people. There's been no groundswell of opinion, no technically minded authority pushing expert opinion. The same people lobbying for the online safety act were pushing age verification tools. The government is exceptionally unpopular, even by the standards of already deeply unpopular governments in recent years. I despair of the situation in the UK. How hav…

You're describing virtually every policy for virtually every government, certainly since the coalition. Arguably a lot of what we've seen before.

The UK doesn't have governments, it has a public policy unit for global capital, with the Americans calling the shots on foreign policy, and a knee-jerk taste for authoritarianism at home.

Re: Imgur pulls out of UK as data watchdog threatens fine

#483

Post by isodev »

m101 wrote: post #478

Some may think that harm doesn't matter, but perhaps actual fines are unjustified without the presence of actual harm. And yes, perhaps the rules should be followed regardless of what they are, but perhaps the government bureaucracy is such that it's just too hard to change rules. I'm one to think that the UK is generally overregulated, excessively obsessed with safety, and the regulation ethos is inconsistently appl…

And perhaps, we should look at this from the PoV of the user and not defend the "company" (which has the advantage in all cases).

Screaming "bureaucracy" and "overregulation" for every single attempt at limiting the impact of corporations is just silly.

Re: Imgur pulls out of UK as data watchdog threatens fine

#484

Post by gethly »

SideburnsOfDoom wrote: post #454
gethly wrote: post #453

In short, governments and internet do no mix. Whenever they do, it ends in a disaster for the people.

But also, Internet with zero governance isn't any better for the people. So what's left?

Are you sure?

Back in late 90s, 2000s, even 2010s, the internet was truly awesome. Only once governments started to get involved, by increasing the red tape and adding restrictions and whatnot, it became shit.

So I would argue that you are completely wrong. Yes, it might have been a bit of a wild west, but that is a good thing because you needed to have some smarts to navigate it and that filtered out the dumb masses that pollute it today and why we cannot have nice things.

I am not saying people should not have access to it, just that the less people there were, the better it was and the less attention it had by the governments. Which in turn made it much better experience than it is today.

But most people, actually, have not lived through those "early" days and cannot even comprehend how great it was back then and how crappy and restricted it is today.

Re: Imgur pulls out of UK as data watchdog threatens fine

#485

Post by dwedge »

adventured wrote: post #133
noir_lord wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same - frankly google/alphabet should just HTTP 451 the UK (and I say that as a brit/someone in the UK). It'd be interesting to see how fast the policy would get reversed then. This was always a stupid policy and so protesting it by pulling services is one way to draw attention to that.

If big tech wants a reaction, pull all investment out of the UK. Microsoft + Google + Amazon + Nvidia + Meta + Apple = $630 billion in annual operating income. They'll react to a change in capital investment faster than anything else.

The end game of these rules seems to be that it's impossible for small forums to cope, so content gets centralised on big tech. I would be surprised if they don't support this.

Re: Imgur pulls out of UK as data watchdog threatens fine

#486

Post by Rebuff5007 »

m101 wrote: post #478

Some may think that harm doesn't matter, but perhaps actual fines are unjustified without the presence of actual harm. And yes, perhaps the rules should be followed regardless of what they are, but perhaps the government bureaucracy is such that it's just too hard to change rules. I'm one to think that the UK is generally overregulated, excessively obsessed with safety, and the regulation ethos is inconsistently appl…

> The government and civil service are also incompetent to the extreme.

As someone who moved to the UK from the states recently, this has not been my experience at all. Any paperwork i've had to do with the government (immigration, NHS, drivers license, car tax) has been incredibly smooth. On top of that, the city council in the area I live seems great -- they put on a ton of events, and have lots of services that seem to get used well.

Most of the incompetence i've seen is from private companies (e.g. banks and real estate).

Re: Imgur pulls out of UK as data watchdog threatens fine

#487

Post by buyucu »

zmmmmm wrote: post #267

There's an opportunity for a service like CloudFlare here give people a simple toggle that manages geoblocks on legal liability factors. It's way too much for every organisation to individually track every country's laws day by day in case just by being accessible there you incur a liability. And it sounds like the UK would have just self-selected out of the list of "safe" countries. If something like this was in wid…

what's wrong with a vpn?

mullvad basically allows me to go around all the censorship in my country: https://mullvad.net/en

Re: Imgur pulls out of UK as data watchdog threatens fine

#488

Post by pndy »

p0w3n3d wrote: post #424

Oppan North Korean Style. In Poland we had no access to "western" electronics since 1989 because we had been part of the "Warsaw Pact" i.e. subordinate to USSR. This was hard, so I pity for you guys in UK

It's hardly a comparable situation to be honest

Re: Imgur pulls out of UK as data watchdog threatens fine

#490

Post by reorder9695 »

gambiting wrote: post #471
smashah wrote: post #391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At this point, the UK government is beyond shaming. On the contrary, it shame and record-breaking unpopularity seems to empower them. I wouldn't put it passed them to require the digital ID to access the internet passed curfew.

Tbf, well implemented digital ID would be much preferable to the idiotic situation that we're in now. The emphasis on well implemented.

That would require trusting a government such as the British one to implement it well. That's far too big an ask for them, so the current situation is preferable.
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