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This is a misguided sentiment. I've already had this debate before (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22507508 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22507508)
by danShumway 7y ago
This is a misguided sentiment. I've already had this debate before (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22507508 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22507508), so I'm not going to rehash it too much. But the short version is:
- decentralized systems hold up to these regulations better than centralized systems, but that doesn't mean these regulations are good for decentralized systems. It will still slow development, and still make it harder for companies and large nonprofits to use the technology. If our goal is for encryption to be universal, then large, public organizations need to be able to use it.
- the DOJ and local police will happily target individual homeservers to make an example of if people start using these services in mass. Anyone who thinks our federal government won't be petty or vindictive about small operators hasn't been paying much attention to them. The DOJ will go wherever encryption is; the only reason they're not currently complaining about Matrix is because no one uses it yet.
- most of the people who care about privacy are already moving to decentralized alternatives, so a ban on E2E encryption may not actually speed that process up. It may just create a bigger technical gap between users who care and users who don't, since decentralized services like Matrix/Mastodon won't be able to make easy onboarding servers.
- decentralization is not an end goal in and of itself. User freedom and privacy are the end goal, and decentralization is a means to accomplish that goal. It is counterproductive to give up user freedom and privacy in order to get decentralization.
We should ramp up efforts to build decentralized platforms in anticipation of bills like this, since centralized platforms can't cope as well and we need mitigations if the laws get passed. But we should not become any less zealous in fighting bad laws, and we certainly shouldn't encourage them.