It’s not unsubstantiated. Push for government-sanctioned client-side spyware already happened years ago with the intent to scan all content and keeps happening every other year, each time with more support, inefficient laws about age control have been pushed in many countries and other are following suits, there’s constant harassment to tech company for them to create backdoor for spying on demand, device manufacturer are threatened for allowing custom software that can be used to circumvent such provisions, etc.
If you haven’t seen any of this, then sure, be surprised that a ban on general public encryption is not unthinkable.
MiddleAgesModem@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Just about every serious commentator in the tech and business spheres find a total VPN ban to be extremely unlikely, despite the rumblings of a few geriatric Parliamentarians. More leaders in the UK have publicly stated that banning VPNs is not on the table and that they have legitimate uses.
Restricting something for children is not the same as so doing for adults. Society already does in a number of ways (driving, smoking, alcohol etc.).
Enforcing a complete ban would be extremely difficult technically and would do serious harm economic harm and undermine cybersecurity. The government is not going to do that out of “spite” despite your generalized anti-government sentiments. Restrictions on kids is not a VPN ban, which would be catastrophic and frankly impossible in the UK. It’s not China. Not only does the UK have different standards and not only do the lack the strangle hold China has, a governing party in the UK would face repercussions for the economic devastation and be voted out of power. As I stated before, in democracies at least, politicians care about the economy because voters care about it, usually more than anything else.
Any serious attempt to implement CSS would be met with fierce opposition from constituents and the industry. Not too mention the economic fallout and technical infeasibility. These are the reason any such proposals have consistently been discarded. It’s worth it to pay attention, sure. And to push back if they ever really try. But the odds of it happening are low.
That’s not really true. At best, support fluctuates. Amongst some lawmakers and law enforcement, you’d probably see a higher level of support but those are pretty much it. Media headlines overstate it because it gets views.
Maybe but I think many of them would stop operating in the UK rather than take such a major hit to their reputation globally. This very thread is about companies refusing to operate in the UK. Apple and Signal have both said they’d leave the UK marker before allowing CSS. Not even Google would be down for that.
Years of them pushing for this without success is an indicator that it won’t happen, not that it will. We have to keep in mind that the limitations and fallout that have kept this from happening so far continue to exist. The UK would become a tech pariah, which is actively doesn’t want.