Online Safety Bill Etc

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

There's many reasons why people would use a VPN, but if it's for privacy reasons, people should satisfy themselves that the VPN provider is trustworthy as they will gain access to everything they do on the internet.

---------- Post added at 14:23 ---------- Previous post was at 14:22 ----------



Thanks. I personally doubt that the Government would ban VPN's for both technical & political reasons.

I was chatting to an engineer at a datacenter in Manchester last week who had heard that there had been meetings between Government ministers, ISP's and the big datacenters such as Equinox on options to limit or ban VPN's within the UK. It's a rumor but i would not put it past this Government who have put more surveillance on the public than any other Government.

My question to those who requested and got the online safety bill, what is there next target for the public to have to endure.

[Carth]

Sod it. Let's just ban the internet altogether.

We'd have to go back to proper newspapers, libraries and books, thriving High Streets with shops, people cooking food at home, and IMO a massive boost to education and social welfare without mobile phones in everyone's face 24/7.

Postal service delivering actual letters, music shops selling CD's and Vinyl Albums, no more gigantic Data Centers being built, etc etc


oh, and no more Virgin price rises

[jem]

Originally Posted by Carth

Sod it. Let's just ban the internet altogether.

We'd have to go back to proper newspapers, libraries and books, thriving High Streets with shops, people cooking food at home, and IMO a massive boost to education and social welfare without mobile phones in everyone's face 24/7.

Postal service delivering actual letters, music shops selling CD's and Vinyl Albums, no more gigantic Data Centers being built, etc etc


oh, and no more Virgin price rises

No, whatever else, there will always be Virgin price rises!

[Carth]

Originally Posted by jem

No, whatever else, there will always be Virgin price rises!

[OLD BOY]

Originally Posted by Carth

Sod it. Let's just ban the internet altogether.

We'd have to go back to proper newspapers, libraries and books, thriving High Streets with shops, people cooking food at home, and IMO a massive boost to education and social welfare without mobile phones in everyone's face 24/7.

Postal service delivering actual letters, music shops selling CD's and Vinyl Albums, no more gigantic Data Centers being built, etc etc


oh, and no more Virgin price rises

Mr K would love that!

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

Mr K would love that!

Probably not, who would he troll then ?

Originally Posted by Sirius

I was chatting to an engineer at a datacenter in Manchester last week who had heard that there had been meetings between Government ministers, ISP's and the big datacenters such as Equinox on options to limit or ban VPN's within the UK. It's a rumor but i would not put it past this Government who have put more surveillance on the public than any other Government.

My question to those who requested and got the online safety bill, what is there next target for the public to have to endure.

It's the Tories who passed the Snoopers Charter and the Online Safety Act. But yes, Labour are no better.

I doubt they'll ban VPNs, too many knock-on effects.

[RichardCoulter]

Originally Posted by Sirius

I was chatting to an engineer at a datacenter in Manchester last week who had heard that there had been meetings between Government ministers, ISP's and the big datacenters such as Equinox on options to limit or ban VPN's within the UK. It's a rumor but i would not put it past this Government who have put more surveillance on the public than any other Government.

My question to those who requested and got the online safety bill, what is there next target for the public to have to endure.

Pornography featuring choking & strangulation is to be made illegal.

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

Pornography featuring choking & strangulation is to be made illegal.

Good, however making it illegal will not stop it. there are lots of actions that are illegal but there will always be those that still do it.

[nffc]

Originally Posted by Damien

It's the Tories who passed the Snoopers Charter and the Online Safety Act. But yes, Labour are no better.

I doubt they'll ban VPNs, too many knock-on effects.

They could do but I doubt they will.


And yes, although it was the Tories who introduced the OSA Labour have had plenty of opportunity to repeal it, if they did not agree with it (not sure what happened when it was voted on). The fact they haven't done that, even when there have been petitions (none of these ever really achieve anything though) etc to show how unpopular it is, shows they too agree with it.


Honestly I think the idea that sites should have responsibility for content which is posted on it, particularly around trolling/bullying, harm, children etc is a good one in principle. But none of it accounts for the fact that the internet is global, the UK can't realistically pass a law and expect sites in places like the US, Canada, Botswana to abide by it, and even the whole concept of "what's a UK site" is a bit fluffy, especially considering most of the content which could apply is on Meta, X, Reddit etc as opposed to smaller forums like this (which I don't think is even hosted in the UK these days).


I don't like 4chan at all, but their response to the whole thing is totally as expected, in reality there's no enforcement the government or Ofcom or whoever can have on that position, other than ordering UK ISPs to block them, and that has worked well before - most people know how and have the access to evade them.


The only watertight way is to ban ISPs and then set up a state ISP and have them block VPNs. That would be something you'd likely see out of somewhere totalitarian though, like North Korea. I think even China allows VPNs.

[RichardCoulter]

Originally Posted by nffc

They could do but I doubt they will.


And yes, although it was the Tories who introduced the OSA Labour have had plenty of opportunity to repeal it, if they did not agree with it not sure what happened when it was voted on). The fact they haven't done that, even when there have been petitions (none of these ever really achieve anything though) etc to show how unpopular it is, shows they too agree with it.


Honestly I think the idea that sites should have responsibility for content which is posted on it, particularly around trolling/bullying, harm, children etc is a good one in principle. But none of it accounts for the fact that the internet is global, the UK can't realistically pass a law and expect sites in places like the US, Canada, Botswana to abide by it, and even the whole concept of "what's a UK site" is a bit fluffy, especially considering most of the content which could apply is on Meta, X, Reddit etc as opposed to smaller forums like this (which I don't think is even hosted in the UK these days).


I don't like 4chan at all, but their response to the whole thing is totally as expected, in reality there's no enforcement the government or Ofcom or whoever can have on that position, other than ordering UK ISPs to block them, and that has worked well before - most people know how and have the access to evade them.


The only watertight way is to ban ISPs and then set up a state ISP and have them block VPNs. That would be something you'd likely see out of somewhere totalitarian though, like North Korea. I think even China allows VPNs.

When the Act was making it's way through Parliament, it had all party support.

A further country (Italy) will shortly be introducing age checks in a weeks time, but it's going to be done differently to the UK:

https://www.techradar.com/vpn/vpn-pr...adult-websites

Looks like more & more countries are doing this, so anyone using one of the countries that are doing so will have to change their VPN country setting.

Originally Posted by nffc

....the whole concept of "what's a UK site" is a bit fluffy, especially considering most of the content which could apply is on Meta, X, Reddit etc as opposed to smaller forums like this (which I don't think is even hosted in the UK these days).

Indeed, we are hosted in Germany, and have been for a while.

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

Looks like more & more countries are doing this, so anyone using one of the countries that are doing so will have to change their VPN country setting.

There will always be plenty of choices of countries that dont.

[mrmistoffelees]

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

Pornography featuring choking & strangulation is to be made illegal.

What if it’s doing it to yourself ? Asking for a friend

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by mrmistoffelees

What if it’s doing it to yourself ? Asking for a friend

Whatever floats your boat!

[mrmistoffelees]

Originally Posted by Pierre

Whatever floats your boat!

When are you going to give me my orange back ?