Comment on Why US tech giants are threatening to quit the UK
3arn0wl@lemmy.world 10 months ago
“WhatsApp and Signal have both threatened to quit the UK market over this demand.”
I’m curious - how would that be done in practice?
And wouldn’t it just mean that people would adopt another protocol, like Tox or Matrix, in stead?
Block all services to the various telecoms in that area. Do IP blocking too.
If the UK makes it illegal for a multinational to do day to day business, they are more likely to build around the problem than submit.
As for the people… Well, best of luck mate!
Preventing access from UK IP addresses, I guess. Same way as some US websites refuse to provide content to EU addresses due to GDPR
But couldn’t that be got around with a vpn or Tor?
Yes, but in that scenario the end user is circumventing the policy, no fine for the tech company.
Of course, but good luck explaining this to the UK lawmakers.
From the company perspectives, they need to comply with the law. The law will probably be along the lines of what I said earlier.
I guess nobody in the UK lawmakers have the slightest idea on how to implement it.
BananaTrifleViolin@kbin.social 10 months ago
It would potentially mean WhatsApp and Signal disappearing from the App Stores in the UK, and UK based accounts being shut down. Whatsapp could concievably just switch off encryption for the UK users or make a UK only version with no contact to the rest of the network (but that would be a major back down), but Signal would never be able to accept that and would likely exit. However Meta may still decide it's better to exit WhatsApp completely than stay if the regulatory burden and risks are too high.
It is possible however that these bills won't make it through parliament either at all or in there current form. We're about 1 year away from a general election (the latest the election can be held is Jan 2025 but they desperately want to avoid a christmas election campaign, so late autum 2024 seems likely) - that means campaigning effectively starts soon and controversial legislation like this can become quickly toxic to MPs desperate to hold their seats. It really depends on what the general reaction to this is - at the moment most people don't seem to care but the social media companies do have the power to drum up public opposition should they wish to fight this.
3arn0wl@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Which, I guess, shows they have a significant amount of meta data about users. :/