I'm guessing if the UK becomes insular, the BBC would continue to enjoy it's dominance in the UK's media market from competitors such as Netflix, Disney and Amazon. Maybe that's why they're so keen to platform these insidious ideas under the veneer of "online safety" without balance or neutrality?
ETA: Ofcom just told social media firms accessible in the UK to mass censor, be banned and massively fined or block access to the UK and the UK will cultivate it's own ecosystem (a.k.a. national Intranet). Wow. They're going all in.
ETA 2: Ofcom will require all websites accessible in the UK to implement age and ID verification if not "safe for kids" or close or block access to the UK. VPN providers welcome this news while they can still legally trade in the UK.
Since I'm British and can confirm everyone's prejudices, yes that's exactly what's going on. Even though GBNews is a blatant controlled op for example and is just a place for MSM Conservatives now the leftists are reeeeing about it constantly and have made several attempts to sabotage the organisation even though it's pretty shit and they drummed out anybody with actual opinions.
This got my brain racking and I think I'm pretty much forced to make the switch to Linux because and bear with me on this one. If the UK government starts applying pressure on companies like Microsoft for compliance with online safety they're inevitably going to make use of the online connections and geo-location/IP addresses to block you from accessing certain non-compliant sites. So if Rumble resists and they have, that means I probably won't be able to even upload videos and access the site properly as they may block it through ISP and if not maybe they'll attempt some sort of OS fuckery.
They may also use windows as a way of stopping you from installing certain software they don't like under claims of safety but in reality they're just targeting specific non-compliant developers and this will probably extend to video games. So lets say you like play Counter-Strike, campaigners claim it's video game violence and children shouldn't be allowed to play. Valve understandably tell them to fuck off then all of a sudden everyone's steam installs get nuked via Windows 11 update.
I knew it was going to get bad, but holy shit they're out doing themselves with what they've got planned for the internet. Guess I'm going to be practicing Linux again when I get my new USB sticks and will see if I can game normally on it.
There are two tests Ofcom is requiring websites to take. First, can children access your website? Well, they know what web browsers and phones are, so yes. Second, what mitigations are you implementing to prevent children seeing anything not "safe for kids"?
From what I understand, websites, apps and Internet services will be required to implement:
ID and age verification for any content that is not "safe for kids". Not just pornography, anything not "safe for kids". Any websites accessible in the UK will have to comply. I suspect many websites will just tell the UK to go away.
Video facial recognition verification which will be ongoing and live to ensure that a device is not handed over to someone else after the initial verification.
IP/geo-location to determine if someone is using a VPN or isn't currently in the UK. And if so, block them. Gambling websites do this and streaming websites detect VPN's to enforce geographical deals for copyrighted work.
Algorithms and moderation that has to err on the side of caution. This will likely just kill off any discussion forum and comment sections while social media platforms will just blanket geoblock posts or delete them to be safe rather than sorry.
The Ofcom consultation for all of this came out today. Do feel free to comment:
And we haven't reached the prospect of VPN's being banned yet. Or the potential for FOSS to be banned either on the same grounds of circumventing safety measures. I haven't seen anything that demands operating systems to remove wrongthink apps but it would not surprise me if Ofcom or the Government demands this.
But what they ultimately advocate for and the campaigners want simply isn't possible with the Internet as is. They'd have to shut it down and implement a national Intranet. And frankly, I think they would be determined to do that if they have the chance.
All of this is valid and yes it's looking like them trying to either shut down or make it impossible to access the internet because they keep seeing people being red pilled over it more than anything and they don't like how it's being used against them.
I'm not kidding this is a major reason why it's going to affect my business a.k.a. game dev and tech stuff in general because they are inevitably going to place restrictions on businesses like mine and make it completely fucking impossible to stay regulatory compliant. Looking at this, you can then see my reasoning behind picking any random South American country and I'd probably make more money being there due to low taxes and less regulation as a result.
That's how fucking bad these kinds of proposals are for tech oriented businesses and I do not want to see my taxpayer money going to these arseholes and it's not like the normies are going to do anything because they're just going to do what they always do. I'm not going to sell my property or anything, that would be daft as long as it has value. I think though I'm definitely going to be going on very lengthy 'holidays' to South America and setting shit up over there. Might even see if I can get a passport among other things to deal with taxes but I'd have to do research on that.
TLDR: If you see this happening in your country run for the fucking hills
I don't think people realise what's coming. The prices alone I saw when I glanced the consultation document on the proposals Ofcom wants would just take anyone but the big firms offline and would likely result in websites sited outside of the UK to geoblock in order to not pay. And that's before all the bureaucratic red tape and regulation that would make it impractical and unviable. And that's before the concept of whoever is left will just ban by default in fear of fines that would kill them.
It really will be the death of the Internet in the UK by a thousand cuts.
I'm guessing if the UK becomes insular, the BBC would continue to enjoy it's dominance in the UK's media market from competitors such as Netflix, Disney and Amazon. Maybe that's why they're so keen to platform these insidious ideas under the veneer of "online safety" without balance or neutrality?
ETA: Ofcom just told social media firms accessible in the UK to mass censor, be banned and massively fined or block access to the UK and the UK will cultivate it's own ecosystem (a.k.a. national Intranet). Wow. They're going all in.
ETA 2: Ofcom will require all websites accessible in the UK to implement age and ID verification if not "safe for kids" or close or block access to the UK. VPN providers welcome this news while they can still legally trade in the UK.
Since I'm British and can confirm everyone's prejudices, yes that's exactly what's going on. Even though GBNews is a blatant controlled op for example and is just a place for MSM Conservatives now the leftists are reeeeing about it constantly and have made several attempts to sabotage the organisation even though it's pretty shit and they drummed out anybody with actual opinions.
This got my brain racking and I think I'm pretty much forced to make the switch to Linux because and bear with me on this one. If the UK government starts applying pressure on companies like Microsoft for compliance with online safety they're inevitably going to make use of the online connections and geo-location/IP addresses to block you from accessing certain non-compliant sites. So if Rumble resists and they have, that means I probably won't be able to even upload videos and access the site properly as they may block it through ISP and if not maybe they'll attempt some sort of OS fuckery.
They may also use windows as a way of stopping you from installing certain software they don't like under claims of safety but in reality they're just targeting specific non-compliant developers and this will probably extend to video games. So lets say you like play Counter-Strike, campaigners claim it's video game violence and children shouldn't be allowed to play. Valve understandably tell them to fuck off then all of a sudden everyone's steam installs get nuked via Windows 11 update.
I knew it was going to get bad, but holy shit they're out doing themselves with what they've got planned for the internet. Guess I'm going to be practicing Linux again when I get my new USB sticks and will see if I can game normally on it.
There are two tests Ofcom is requiring websites to take. First, can children access your website? Well, they know what web browsers and phones are, so yes. Second, what mitigations are you implementing to prevent children seeing anything not "safe for kids"?
From what I understand, websites, apps and Internet services will be required to implement:
ID and age verification for any content that is not "safe for kids". Not just pornography, anything not "safe for kids". Any websites accessible in the UK will have to comply. I suspect many websites will just tell the UK to go away.
Video facial recognition verification which will be ongoing and live to ensure that a device is not handed over to someone else after the initial verification.
IP/geo-location to determine if someone is using a VPN or isn't currently in the UK. And if so, block them. Gambling websites do this and streaming websites detect VPN's to enforce geographical deals for copyrighted work.
Algorithms and moderation that has to err on the side of caution. This will likely just kill off any discussion forum and comment sections while social media platforms will just blanket geoblock posts or delete them to be safe rather than sorry.
The Ofcom consultation for all of this came out today. Do feel free to comment:
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/consultations-and-statements/category-1/protecting-children-from-harms-online
And we haven't reached the prospect of VPN's being banned yet. Or the potential for FOSS to be banned either on the same grounds of circumventing safety measures. I haven't seen anything that demands operating systems to remove wrongthink apps but it would not surprise me if Ofcom or the Government demands this.
But what they ultimately advocate for and the campaigners want simply isn't possible with the Internet as is. They'd have to shut it down and implement a national Intranet. And frankly, I think they would be determined to do that if they have the chance.
All of this is valid and yes it's looking like them trying to either shut down or make it impossible to access the internet because they keep seeing people being red pilled over it more than anything and they don't like how it's being used against them.
I'm not kidding this is a major reason why it's going to affect my business a.k.a. game dev and tech stuff in general because they are inevitably going to place restrictions on businesses like mine and make it completely fucking impossible to stay regulatory compliant. Looking at this, you can then see my reasoning behind picking any random South American country and I'd probably make more money being there due to low taxes and less regulation as a result.
That's how fucking bad these kinds of proposals are for tech oriented businesses and I do not want to see my taxpayer money going to these arseholes and it's not like the normies are going to do anything because they're just going to do what they always do. I'm not going to sell my property or anything, that would be daft as long as it has value. I think though I'm definitely going to be going on very lengthy 'holidays' to South America and setting shit up over there. Might even see if I can get a passport among other things to deal with taxes but I'd have to do research on that.
TLDR: If you see this happening in your country run for the fucking hills
I don't think people realise what's coming. The prices alone I saw when I glanced the consultation document on the proposals Ofcom wants would just take anyone but the big firms offline and would likely result in websites sited outside of the UK to geoblock in order to not pay. And that's before all the bureaucratic red tape and regulation that would make it impractical and unviable. And that's before the concept of whoever is left will just ban by default in fear of fines that would kill them.
It really will be the death of the Internet in the UK by a thousand cuts.