344
submitted 11 months ago by L4s@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

Today The UK Parliament Undermined The Privacy, Security, And Freedom Of All Internet Users::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...

top 30 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] qooqie@lemmy.world 89 points 11 months ago

HUGE oof. Get your grandparents out of office and put some people who know how technology works in

[-] lustrum@sh.itjust.works 25 points 11 months ago

They knew it wasn't feasible but made it law anyways and passed it to ofcom to generate the guidelines for these companies to follow.

Absolutely incredible.

[-] Dasnap@lemmy.world 40 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I thought they pushed this back a few weeks ago when they realized it wasn't plausible?

Or is it a case of 'the law is here for when it is plausible', which it never will be?

[-] Catalog0904 35 points 11 months ago

You sadly are correct. All they said is the tech doesn’t exist….but we are still making this the law. Dark times…

[-] Dasnap@lemmy.world 20 points 11 months ago

So they've basically made a law saying we must all bow down to The Almighty Dragon when he's eventually discovered?

[-] cashews_best_nut@lemmy.world 17 points 11 months ago

It'll be a cold day in hell before I bow to a Welshman!

[-] ItsABarmcake@lemmy.world 5 points 11 months ago

Oh no. They might actually make it onto the flag

[-] Thranduil@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago

I dont think monkey D dragon wants to restrict internet he is too busy fighting the government

[-] Spendrill@lemm.ee 26 points 11 months ago

The absolutely hilarious thing about this is that all of these MPs that clamoured for this bill because "Won't somebody think of the children!" are up to all sorts of terrible behaviour and a whole bunch of them are on Signal.

[-] oroboros@sh.itjust.works 18 points 11 months ago

And the same day stirred up a shit storm about watering down climate commitments, surely coincidence...

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-66857551

Unfortunately they are likely looking to both destroy free communication and the climate, and not just using it as a ruse... They're psychotic.

[-] Eheran@lemmy.world 12 points 11 months ago

Why all internet users and not "just" those in the UK?

[-] admin@lemmy.my-box.dev 39 points 11 months ago

A clause of the bill allows Ofcom, the British telecom regulator, to serve a notice requiring tech companies to scan their users–all of them–for child abuse content.This would affect even messages and files that are end-to-end encrypted to protect user privacy. 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.

[-] Steeve@lemmy.ca 37 points 11 months ago

I am willing to bet that the overwhelming response from tech to "build a back door into every internet user's E2EE communication globally for us to use" is going to be a big fat "No". The UK market isn't big enough to be making these kinds of demands.

[-] tony@lemmy.hoyle.me.uk 35 points 11 months ago

The reaction is more likely 'It's still impossible. Just like we told you all the other times. Idiots.'

[-] Steeve@lemmy.ca 20 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

It's technically not impossible, it would just get rid if the entire point of E2EE, which is mentioned in the open response from WhatsApp, Signal, and others:

if implemented as written, could empower Ofcom to try to force the proactive scanning of private messages on end-to-end encrypted communication services, nullifying the purpose of end-to-end encryption as a result and compromising the privacy of all users

[-] drbluefall@toast.ooo 17 points 11 months ago

...this would make E2EE effectively meaningless, because no amount of encryption will protect against getting scanned at the entrance and exit.

[-] darth_helmet@sh.itjust.works 11 points 11 months ago

And then some incompetent contractor will put the backdoor key onto their GitHub and completely destroy everyone’s privacy

[-] phx@lemmy.ca 3 points 11 months ago

AND it would probably break laws in other countries that actually value privacy or security. It's not like they'd be making a UK-only client for every fucking app or device that uses encrypted communications

[-] Steeve@lemmy.ca 3 points 11 months ago

Yeah exactly, it's very, very stupid and not something any service that actually bothered to enable E2EE in the first place would ever seriously consider.

[-] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works -2 points 11 months ago

VPNs: exist

At more length: the internet is incredibly complicated and interrelated. It’s actually extremely difficult to draw clear national boundaries in terms of one web service or another, and the result is honestly never going to be 100% accurate.

[-] _haha_oh_wow_@sh.itjust.works 4 points 11 months ago

Yeah, that sounds like something they'd do.

[-] spearz@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago

I wouldn’t worry about this too much. Today they announced they’re no longer implementing a bunch of things they just made up, like forcing people to car share, and something about demanding people to use a minimum of seven bins…

Tomorrow they will probably state that they’re banning lemons, or insisting that people are only allowed to talk with a French accent when ordering pastries.

this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2023
344 points (97.8% liked)

Technology

57944 readers
3090 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS