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May 2015: “…we’re not going to stay in a country where we might be forced to backdoor our products (and possibly not even be allowed to tell anyone about it)”
https://ar.al/notes/so-long-and-thanks-for-all-the-fish/
Nov 2022: “Internet services used every day by British consumers would be obligated to scan all public posts and private chats against government-specified criteria … If these services don’t want to do it, they could pack up and leave the UK.“
[hz] 
@aral Just curious, is there a reason France isn't on your list of potential places to move to?
βօӀìçҽ ժմ βօղƓօûէ 
@aral It's amazing how instead of working for building a safe cultural environment that moves towards not harming children either online or anywhere else, the UK chooses the authoritarian policing route, reducing it to a techno-fix instead of a social issue cause by a variety of cultural, economic, and medical factors.
Like the Brexit philosophy they love, a view of reality that extremely simplifies everything, solves nothing, and creates more problems (that will need more techno fixes)
@alx Yep. And it’s not just the UK. The EU likes to talk a good talk but the same authoritarian tendencies are there with attempts to codify them in law as we speak. Basically, while not everywhere is the same (by a long shot), nowhere is “safe” either is the lesson we’ve learned in the past however many years. Sadly, it would appear that if we want to protect human rights and democracy, we have to be willing to keep fighting for them. It’s not a battle we win and then move on from.
@aral Hard agree. I'm coming to think that democracy is a fight by default. I'm reading and listening more about today's democracy & the need to move from the 'crisis' narrative, as democracy isn't a definite stage. In a podcast I was listening to, a professor defined 'democracy is a never-ending building site', the moment we stop actively working on it, it collapses or becomes an unfinished decadent ruin, which, though still limited, I think is a quite good metaphor.
@aral If only some famous British novelists had written to warn us of about authoritarianism.
@aral like so many things connected to our current government, no good will come of this. A decade of home secretaries have idolised China's approach, as they realise totalitarian control is the only way the despised remain in power :(
@aral do you still stand by your statement that you three aren't the dolphins in the photo?
@0xadada Ee Ee Eee Ee Ee
@aral this sounds terrible and literally could be used by fashy or TERFy politicians to scan for queer or trans content & people or could be used to scan for other people a party doesn't like
@aral ugh! Don't even get me started on the OSB 
Orwellian is a very apt description:
https://reclaimthenet.org/uk-online-safety-bill-explained-summary/
@aral that is horribly close to V for Vendetta and 1984
> It's quite possible that all this will backfire spectacularly as England shifts ever further right in its xenophobia and that the British will vote to leave the EU
As a UK citizen, it really sucks. I don't want to move countries. I've been avoiding the news lately as it takes too much of a toll
@aral Well that's not good, but honestly do you expect much from politicians that don't fundamentally understand technology? Secret, but not so secret secret; It's never about the tech.
The people drafting these policies are so unqualified to be making these decisions.
@aral
Such discussions have been held and led to laws, in France national assembly…
@clacke First Sweden, then here (Ireland), yes :)