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The UK Government is reportedly preparing a PR blitz against end-to-end encryption:
Meta recently said that it would implement end-to-end encryption in Facebook Messenger and Instagram by 2023, despite strong opposition from governments in the UK and elsewhere. However, the UK Home Office is reportedly planning an ad campaign to mobilize public opinion against end-to-end encryption using what critics called "scaremongering" tactics, according to a report from Rolling Stone.
The UK government plans to team up with charities and law enforcement agencies on a public relations blitz created by M&C Saatchi advertising agency, the report states. The aim of the campaign is to relay a message that end-to-end encryption could hamper efforts to curb child exploitation online.
"We have engaged M&C Saatchi to bring together the many organizations who share our concerns about the impact end-to-end encryption would have on our ability to keep children safe," a Home Office spokesperson told Rolling Stone in a statement. The government has allocated £534,000 ($730,500) for the blitz, according to a letter sent from the Home Office in response to a freedom of information request.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Rich on Tuesday January 18 2022, @04:23PM (3 children)
An even bigger con is the pretense that the absence of authoritarianism means freedom. There has got to be some ordering mechanism, even if it's just the Antitrust Fairies libertarians believe in. In the "capitalist freedom" case, freedom directly correlates to the amount of money one has. Now, if the ordering structure was entirely absent, that would be anarchy, and then we'd come full circle to enjoy the authoritarianism of our local warlords.
(Score: 2) by Unixnut on Tuesday January 18 2022, @06:27PM (1 child)
In my world there is a distinction between "authoritarianism" and "authority" . An absence of authoritarianism does not mean an absence of authority.
To me authoritarianism is excessive authority imposed by force in a suppressive manner, while Authority is something people willingly submit to (in return for stability and order, or some other benefits).
(Score: 2) by Rich on Tuesday January 18 2022, @08:58PM
Um... Authority is just as suppressive as authoritarianism (gawd, I have to copy/paste that word...), it's just not perceived as such. People in the west don't question that they can't copy The Mouse, while 'recorded transfer of information' is the single thing that sets us apart from other species. In eastern bloc countries, no one would have cared about that (unless someone imagined the content might be a political metaphor). The questioning only starts when something is taken away from the people, or they see that people elsewhere have something they don't.
I'm rather convinced that the GDR didn't fall because people had an eternal desire for political freedom, but rather that they were fed up with their two-stroke cardboard stinkers, dirty plaster falling of the walls, and people across the border having 16-bit video games, while they could have an 8-bitter, if they were lucky, that the western relatives were just throwing out for the new, shiny Amiga. Who today would complain about the political situation in Singapore, a one-party state with surveillance is at a level that would bring tears of joy to the nastiest Stasi people, and refuse to go there, when good money is to be made?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday January 19 2022, @03:16AM
I wouldn't call this an "even bigger" con when no one has had the opportunity to fall for it.