<
https://www.techdirt.com/2023/06/28/australian-government-apparently-willing-to-follow-in-uk-governments-client-side-scanning-footsteps/>
"The UK government desires direct control of the internet. This has been the
plan for years. A bill that would criminalize encryption while mandating
client-side scanning to control the spread of child sexual abuse material
(CSAM) has been on the front burner for years.
The bill would also turn hate speech into a crime and punish tech companies
directly for content generated by users. It’s a bad idea all over — something
UK legislators realized early on, resulting in some rebranding. What used to be
called the “Online Harms Act” is now the “Online Safety Act.” The harms to
internet users remain the same. The only thing that has changed is the
government’s preferred nomenclature.
While we’ve been keeping an eye on similar statutes proposed by the EU —
something that would also criminalize encryption if end-to-end encryption
prevented client-side scanning for CSAM — the UK’s policy proposal has been
embraced by its farm team, the Australian government.
This government has been seeking ways to irreparably damage encryption while
increasing its domestic surveillance powers. That it would embrace a proposal
that threatens encryption while increasing monitoring demands for service
providers is unsurprising.
But the nation has flown under the radar while the UK and EU governments make
all the headlines. But we’re back on task here, thanks to an excellent report
on the latest regulation efforts by Cam Wilson for Aussie-focused news outlet
Crikey."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
