I'm not liking the way the internet is. 8th August 2025
I don't like the way the internet is being reduced by the government and corporations to a shell of its former self and I'm not talking about how it's effecting the porn industry or how we should protect the children (*see note).
I'm in Great Britain and I'm talking about how its censoring everyday sites from being open to everyone and allowing 3rd party companies to gather personal details for age verification. For example, When I go to a Reddit user's profile I'm stopped and asked for age verification. I'm not looking at the seedier parts of Reddit, the suicide areas or any illegal stuff, I just want to look at a profile.
Now I believe in privacy in real life as well as on the internet, we are all told not to share personal details with strangers due to safety, we have all seen the stalkers, scammers, ID thief’s and blackmailers along with countless other creeps and weirdos on the internet as well as the real world but now I'm being told to TRUST some random 3rd party verification company with zero accountability or lose access to sites I've used for years. I'm aware that it's easily circumvented and I love the picture of Keir Starmer's fake driving licence but that’s illegal.
* I'm current sat here in Denmark as I was looking up the "Use_Their_ID" site for a picture but it's gone down so anyway, who doesn't love strong encryption so even my ISP can't track my traffic.
People have started talking about having a government system with a digital fingerprint but this just hands them an easy way to track an individual for their own purposes and that means you might as well install a INGSOC telescreen in every room of the house. Then again, you carry a mobile everywhere you go (a lot of you even take it to the shitter).I do wonder how so many people just brush off this flagrant reduction in civil liberties. I don't care what branch of politics you hang from, how can people appear so easy about all this.
The Online Safety Act was introduced and passed by the Tories in 2023
The Online Safety Act comes into law under the (blue)Labour government in 2025
*note I understand you want to protect the children but I don't have any children and couldn't give a fuck about them. Its your job to protect them on the internet by limiting their access, NOT by limiting everyone else’s.
