Online Safety Act (UK)

Here in the UK, Reform have committed to scrapping this nonsense if they gain power. However they don't seem to have decided what they would do instead.
 
Here in the UK, Reform have committed to scrapping this nonsense if they gain power. However they don't seem to have decided what they would do instead.
You mean dear old Nigel has jumped on what he believes is a popular bandwagon, even though it is his supporters who are most vocal about protecting people from nonces?

That's gonna go down well with his supporter base
 
Apparently people would rather sign up for a VPN, and ignore the law.

UK has 300k people calling to repeal the act.


Much like censorship via payment processors, i think this may get cleared up fairly quickly.
 
Apparently people would rather sign up for a VPN, and ignore the law.

UK has 300k people calling to repeal the act.


Much like censorship via payment processors, i think this may get cleared up fairly quickly.
What do you mean by cleared up though?

I don't see them repealing this anytime soon. That never happens for acts surely. It would require processes, consultations and what not.

OTOH, they might see the rise in VPN demand and just instead shut them down somehow
 
What do you mean by cleared up though?
I don't see them repealing this anytime soon. That never happens for acts surely. It would require processes, consultations and what not.

You're right, the summary of the petition from the UK is the government didn't care and they want their Trojan.

OTOH, they might see the rise in VPN demand and just instead shut them down somehow

Doubt it. The nature of the internet (IP packets, TCP/IP) is meant to ensure data can get from one place to another. The nature of VPNs may change, a lite and full version maybe (lite being only html and sections needed to get past the verification stage, while everything else is sent through normal channels, https nature means everything is encrypted anyways), otherwise just tunneling data through another end point makes another VPN-like state, you just connect the end points a bit differently.

Outcomes
1) People comply, this is doubtful, EVERYTHING requires verification which is a lot of private information going through and an overloaded system. Looking at the TEA app that recently went down from bad security shows this is a bad idea.

2) People ignore it. The internet will work as it always has. No amount of government yelling will change it. Much like making alcohol illegal you can't change peoples minds. The UK wants to sue a US company for not complying? Fuck them. Site gets blocked? Heh, VPN or torrents again....

3) All websites decide NOT to be hosted in the UK. Then it won't matter, the UK can't touch it, as much as they want to yell. Oh and that also means their other online acts mean diddly squat (this seems the most likely scenario so far)

4) UK decides to firewall the entire country and... become like china.... Yeah i don't see that happening...

5) It eventually gets repealed. Hopeful.

I think people are getting sick of censorship, be it Germany where a tweet they didn't like means a visit from the police, or putting something lukewarm on Twitter getting you banned like men aren't women.

Also no matter how hard they try to squeeze and control the public if people don't agree with it they won't go along with the program.

To note other countries seem to be pushing the same thing, looks like they are still trying to work in lockestep, but somehow i think detecting you are using a VPN and ignoring verification seems most likely, or just https everything and having an easy bypass also seems workable. Either way, i don't see the act gaining traction to do what they wanted.
 
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VPNs are used by legitimate companies to provide security.

The chances of getting this passed are between zero and none.

On a technical note a VPN just makes a middleman gateway/router that is encrypted from two end points. Unless you can't reach the other end point, you can't stop it.

The internet in it's inception under DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) the worry was that communication could be cut off, specifically the worry of nuclear war. So they had to have a method where a message could redirect itself. When telephones were the main method of transit, that direct connections only. Some interesting bits is the TCP/IP combo (Transmission Control Protocol, plus Internet Protocol, you can combine other types but TCP/IP is the most common today) has a source/destination, port, TTL (time to live), packet order ID, CRC and other tidbits. Multiple copies of the packet may be sent, either right away or over time, or extra copies of a packet if the source tinks the destination didn't get it.

TTL in particular self-kills a packet over time. Tracing how a packet gets to it's destination is interesting where you send increasingly longer TTL packets and then see where it died at and you can literally trace a patch (well if it follows the same path that is) from one computer, to another. Unless all routers collectively refuse to dish packets to a destination, you can't stop it.

Unless they kill all communication systems, or electricity in general...... yeah i don't see that happening. Not only that it wouldn't be a surprise that once you know the link to get past the check (which will likely be at the beginning of the first page, or a cookie entry of 'verified=true' or something) then it would just skip it. Better yet sites would collectively use the same cookie ID and then you just install a addon to your browser that adds it to every site you go to; And *shrugs* all the sudden everyone is already age verified... Who'd a thunk?
 
I had to submit ID to Vimeo last week when I posted a slightly raunchy video. It was a legit request: they did it all through the platform.

I was really annoying. Is this a harbinger of all streaming platforms?🤔
 
what was the ID requeested?
Government-issued ID (I used my Australian licence). It was actually a copyright claim by the management of a beauty pageant I competed in who’d filmed me onstage. I combined it with my own private footage.

So I might be crying wolf here.😕
 
Okay, I can't hold off a rant any longer - folks from the UK will understand!

How come the UK govt can act this fast to ban access to porn but can't clear up child sex trafficking in Rotherham from 20 years ago? How can they even consider introducing bans for access to toilets for trans people, while only 1.3% of rape cases end in even a summons or a charge? How come the ADF UK received £1.3 million last year, but is not a proscribed agency, but Palestine Action sprayed an unguarded(!) military plane and got banned immediately? The sanctimonious hypocrisy in government is breath-taking.

As for age verification - just NO! Don't do it. Same with any images of yourself and family on the web - why risk it?
Use a fricking VPN... if you're struggling with the technology someone here will help.
 
Well... That went a long way off topic...

How come the UK govt can act this fast to ban access to porn but can't clear up child sex trafficking in Rotherham from 20 years ago?

I don't know why they can do it quicker. My guess is it's easier to put the legislation in place restricting access to things than try to solve systemic problems that have evaded successive govts of varying shades for a couple of decades. In principle, this legislation is little different to needing to be 18 to buy a porn mag in a newsagents.

Framing it as banning (general) access to porn is disingenuous. But indeed it does restrict it.

How can they even consider introducing bans for access to toilets for trans people, while only 1.3% of rape cases end in even a summons or a charge? How come the ADF UK received £1.3 million last year, but is not a proscribed agency, but Palestine Action sprayed an unguarded(!) military plane and got banned immediately? The sanctimonious hypocrisy in government is breath-taking.

I'm neither siding with or against the govt here, but this is monumentallly off topic. It's one for the politics board as all this will do is start an argument about political views, and will swamp the aim of the thread in discussing and providing answers to questions thrown up by a specific piece of legislation.
 
Okay, I can't hold off a rant any longer - folks from the UK will understand!

How come the UK govt can act this fast to ban access to porn but can't clear up child sex trafficking in Rotherham from 20 years ago? How can they even consider introducing bans for access to toilets for trans people, while only 1.3% of rape cases end in even a summons or a charge? How come the ADF UK received £1.3 million last year, but is not a proscribed agency, but Palestine Action sprayed an unguarded(!) military plane and got banned immediately? The sanctimonious hypocrisy in government is breath-taking.

As for age verification - just NO! Don't do it. Same with any images of yourself and family on the web - why risk it?
Use a fricking VPN... if you're struggling with the technology someone here will help.
It comes down to priorities and goals. And sounds a lot like the current US Gov’t. Controlling people is a higher priority than protecting people, especially when sex crimes are involved. Even measures like the one this thread is about are performative - they make the “moral conservatives” happy and they say they are doing this to protect people, but we all know that this will have no affect on that which they are claiming to solve. It’s performative. And so frustrating.
 
I don't think Lit can get around this, stories come under the purview of the act, just as audio and images.

Is Lit owned by any of those companies?
 
I don't think Lit can get around this, stories come under the purview of the act, just as audio and images.

Is Lit owned by any of those companies?

Personally? If Lit is based in the US and i were in charge, I'd just ignore it and if they complain i'd tell them to kiss my ass and pound sand, and fine me if they want I'd never pay it. The most i'd consider doing is for UK IP's to have a cover page, then point to a proxy server/vpn to use, as well as who to call to annoy them.

But there's similar pushes for the same act in Australia and in the US. So it's a concerted effort much like PIPA to censor the internet, it's just coming back in another form.

Said bills affect everything on the internet if they pass. Any interactive medium of any kind for example.

This is not about protecting kids. It's about establishing an internet ID so they can track you, and much like a Chinese credit score, shut you down if you're a bad citizen and question the narrative or think for yourself.

Not to mention a similar censorship is also going on with Steam/Itch.io where games of any adult nature are getting yanked off, where payment processors are said to be the ones to blame, but visa/mastercard/paypal are getting their lines clogged up (and probably will be now) for weeks to come.
 
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