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Are cellphone or walkie talkie manufacturers regulated because those devices can be used to run drug rings? It's easy to make analogies to draw a range of concl

Are cellphone or walkie talkie manufacturers regulated because those devices can be used to run drug rings? It's easy to make analogies to draw a range of conclusions. Social platforms are given a hard time for being walled gardens, but they are clearly getting to a kind of scale where they are hard to police, almost like the internet at large. If they weren't owned by a single company maybe this would be seen differently?

ejstronge 7y ago
> Are cellphone or walkie talkie manufacturers regulated because those devices can be used to run drug rings? Actually, yes - you’ll have a hard time obtaining SIM cards to use your cell phone without giving ID, precisely for this reason.
- tooop 7y ago
  Actually, no, that is not related to cellphone manufacturers.
- mrtksn 7y ago
  Yep, cellphones, cans containing chemicals that people abuse, knives, car trunks, alcohol bottles etc. There are tons of regulations that are a response to an issue that someone created by using a product the way it was not intended to be used.
- pixelbash 7y ago
  Yeah my secondary point that I deleted was that it's the sims that are regulated. Isn't that closer to regulating an ISP? But then a cellphone is more like a computer or iPad, so all these analogies are a stretch.
  - mrtksn 7y ago
    They obey to other less obvious regulations, manufacturers cannot sell you a phone that transmits in a frequency you desire or let you input your own IMEI number etc. Seriously, hardware is regulated. Check it out. It's all about response to some kind of abuse and it's different everywhere. In some places regulators mandate that the alcohol bottles must have special plugs that let out alcohol but cannot be re-filled easily because at some point someone started bootleg alcohol business by re-filling the consumed bottles.
- masterofpuppets 7y ago
  Pre-paid cell phones with minutes dont require ID, real names, credit cards, etc.. You can even buy them with cash.
  - mrtksn 7y ago
    Depends on where you buy it. If the place didn't have a problem with criminals using burner phones, you would not have ID requirement otherwise they will make a copy of your ID before activating your pre-paid phone. Different places have different problems enabled through different technologies or goods, therefore different regulations. The place is huge and devided to about 200 parcels all with different approach of handling issues, check it out here: https://www.google.com/maps https://www.google.com/maps

ejstronge 7y ago

> Are cellphone or walkie talkie manufacturers regulated because those devices can be used to run drug rings? Actually, yes - you’ll have a hard time obtaining SIM cards to use your cell phone without giving ID, precisely for this reason.

tooop 7y ago
Actually, no, that is not related to cellphone manufacturers.
mrtksn 7y ago
Yep, cellphones, cans containing chemicals that people abuse, knives, car trunks, alcohol bottles etc. There are tons of regulations that are a response to an issue that someone created by using a product the way it was not intended to be used.
pixelbash 7y ago
Yeah my secondary point that I deleted was that it's the sims that are regulated. Isn't that closer to regulating an ISP? But then a cellphone is more like a computer or iPad, so all these analogies are a stretch.
- mrtksn 7y ago
  They obey to other less obvious regulations, manufacturers cannot sell you a phone that transmits in a frequency you desire or let you input your own IMEI number etc. Seriously, hardware is regulated. Check it out. It's all about response to some kind of abuse and it's different everywhere. In some places regulators mandate that the alcohol bottles must have special plugs that let out alcohol but cannot be re-filled easily because at some point someone started bootleg alcohol business by re-filling the consumed bottles.
masterofpuppets 7y ago
Pre-paid cell phones with minutes dont require ID, real names, credit cards, etc.. You can even buy them with cash.
- mrtksn 7y ago
  Depends on where you buy it. If the place didn't have a problem with criminals using burner phones, you would not have ID requirement otherwise they will make a copy of your ID before activating your pre-paid phone. Different places have different problems enabled through different technologies or goods, therefore different regulations. The place is huge and devided to about 200 parcels all with different approach of handling issues, check it out here: https://www.google.com/maps https://www.google.com/maps