The U.K. Parliament has passed the Online Safety Bill (OSB), which says it will make the U.K. “the safest place” in the world to be online. In reality, the OSB will lead to a much more censored, locked-down internet for British users. The bill could empower the government to undermine not just the privacy and security of U.K. residents, but internet users worldwide.

As enacted, the OSB allows the government to force companies to build technology that can scan regardless of encryption–in other words, build a backdoor.

Paradoxically, U.K. lawmakers have created these new risks in the name of online safety.

The U.K. government has made some recent statements indicating that it actually realizes that getting around end-to-end encryption isn’t compatible with protecting user privacy. But

The problem is, in the U.K. as in the U.S., people do not agree about what type of content is harmful for kids. Putting that decision in the hands of government regulators will lead to politicized censorship decisions.

The OSB will also lead to harmful age-verification systems. This violates fundamental principles about anonymous and simple access

See also: Britain Admits Defeat in Controversial Fight to Break Encryption

    • Saki@monero.townOPMEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      Frankly I never really feel threatened by “e2e ban”. If necessary I can locally implement this from scratch on my own, even if they outlaw “e2e providers” (the notion of “e2e provider” is an oxymoron to begin with) — ultimately they can’t ban number theory, right? Even if some primes are “illegal” lol, one is free to add P to Q. A law like “you shall not add points of a curve over a finite field” is simply impossible. Besides, it’s practically impossible to ban something like decss much less GnuPG.

      But I’m worried about age verification, which is essentially KYC and actually enforceable (as already is, in some Asian countries).