I feel like the UK is showing us what happens when the western world enters the information age without the protections and focus on individual freedoms some ot

I feel like the UK is showing us what happens when the western world enters the information age without the protections and focus on individual freedoms some other countries have (not just the US, although of course they're high on the list). In many ways we're seeing history play out all over again - new, disruptive thing shows up, governments wet themselves in terror, and try to control it. The difference is what happens now; in the US this tends (excluding drugs) to lead slowly towards a more nuanced position where the reigns are gradually loosened. In the UK that seems to never happen, the arrow of control and government intrusion only ever points in one direction. It's very puzzling; I'm not sure what the source of it is but I think it's going to be a serious issue in the future. Specifically as the rest of the world forges ahead, either through the evolving view of attempting to control of the uncontrollable, or through sheer lawlessness in other countries where the control is never in place. In the middle will be the UK, clinging desperately to the belief that (as someone else in the thread put it) they can hold back the tide.