4 ms·

Bill Gates advocates for stopping end-to-end encryption

18 points by kiki_jiki 6y ago

tomcam 6y ago
This bears more research. Disturbing if true. Article is marred by inflammatory rhetoric.
jwineinger 6y ago
Even if true, he's just one (already rich) person.
- maps7 6y ago
  He's riding high on being correct about covid-19 so he is influential to a lot of people.
nikhizzle 6y ago
Is this real news? I see no mentions of primary sources, and when I do a google search I find some much older articles with much more context and nuance. I’m not sure I believe this in any way. It is taking quotes out of context, and creating an exaggeration.
- crmrc114 6y ago
  So clicking the wired link in the post then doing ctrl+f I found where they are getting this from https://www.wired.com/story/bill-gates-on-covid-most-us-tests-are-completely-garbage/ https://www.wired.com/story/bill-gates-on-covid-most-us-test... I think wired is generally not out there trying to libel people. I am honesty curious why Gates has been out of the public sphere for over ten years but is suddenly out there shilling against crypto for 'the children'.
  - sequence7 6y ago
    I had a look at that article but I couldn't find where in that article he is "shilling against crypto for 'the children'". Can you share a quote?
    - m000 6y ago
      There are these: > When you have encrypted, there is no way to know what it is. I personally believe government should not allow those types of lies or fraud or child pornography. > Being big in the social media business is no simple game, like the encryption issue. Personally, I wouldn't call these quotes "shilling", but Gates does seem to have funny thoughts on encryption. Maybe half-baked, but he is smart enough to not voice half-baked thoughts on an interview. However, I'm also sceptical about the type of "free speech" reclaimthenet.org is advocating. The tone of the article is very sensationalistic, focusing more on calling-out Gates, rather than debunking his thoughts.
      - tfandango 6y ago
        I thought he seemed pretty exasperated in that interview on corona response. Maybe he let his guard down, I was surprised to read the encryption stuff too.
  - victords 6y ago
    He's not been really out of the public sphere. He has always been involved in a number of social issues through his foundation and have been very vocal/public about them. Maybe we're just hearing a bit more about him and his thoughts because he's involved in looking for a way out of Covid through his foundation, and has famously 'predicted' something like this.
- toyg 6y ago
  I agree that this piece makes me file reclaimthenet.org under "fake-news spreading". I'm no Gates fan but I've rarely seen so much vitriol in so little space.
CryptoPunk 6y ago
He didn't outright advocate for it from the interview that I believe motivated this article, but he did pretty strongly imply that end-to-end encryption facilitates crime and shouldn't be allowed: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/28/bill-gates-lies-spread-faster-than-facts-on-social-media.html https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/28/bill-gates-lies-spread-faste... >“Some of the messages on their platform, they don’t even see because of the encryption on WhatsApp,” Gates said. “In order to not have any responsibility, they’ve made that opaque. You know, so whatever the issues — anti-vaccine, child pornography — they have made sure they can’t intervene on those things.”
- orangepanda 6y ago
  Ah the classic "why wont anyone think of the children" reasons.
- Mountain_Skies 6y ago
  Pretty much every freedom facilitates crime in one way or another.
- cpr 6y ago
  Nice equivocation of CP and asking critical questions about vaccine safety.
  - happytoexplain 6y ago
    The term "anti-vaccine" does not refer to people who are only "asking critical questions about vaccine safety".
    - cpr 6y ago
      Sure it does. Anyone questioning the mainstream narrative is immediately labeled an "evil anti-vaxxer". Try it sometime.
- snarf21 6y ago
  This is very disappointing. My response for people on this side is this: Great, hand me your unlocked phone. I promise not to share anything with anyone else.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
DaniloDias 6y ago
Bill Gates’ narcissism is really on display lately. There is something in his interviews that suggest the guy cannot see where anyone can reasonably disagree with him on anything. He lumps everyone who disagrees with him into camps of crazies in an extraordinarily uncharitable way. Combine this fact with the public, 20 year lie that he is giving away his fortune, it’s time for him to step down from public life. He is damaging arguments that are good by attaching his reputation to them.
- gnusty_gnurc 6y ago
  sad to see a heterdox opinion that's articulated clearly without being needlessly abrasive get downvoted into oblivion
  - happytoexplain 6y ago
    Wow - you don't think "Bill Gates’ narcissism is really on display lately" is needlessly abrasive?
    - gnusty_gnurc 6y ago
      that's not really abrasive, it's critical sure, but something like "gates is a pompous prick" is an abrasive way of saying he's a narcissist
    - DaniloDias 6y ago
      It may be uncharitable to diagnose a stranger. I have family with narcissism issues. It is nakedly obvious to me gates has the same issue. You kinda can’t blame him, given his financial status- but there are honest scientific people who disagree with his approach and he’s framing them all as conspiracy theorists.
sourthyme 6y ago
I don't believe there is a way to stop end-to-end encryption. You can easily make data look non-encrypted but actually contain something encrypted underneath.
- m000 6y ago
  a.k.a. steganography
NiceWayToDoIT 6y ago
Is this click-bait news, I cannot tell anymore?
gvhst 6y ago
Bill, I thought you were a pretty smart guy... Can't you think of anything that will increase public health knowledge and awareness (especially vaccines) that doesn't involve monitoring private conversations for goodthink? I think this is a very lazy way to go about you foundation's mission statement. If we can't (and I really don't think this is the case), then anti-vaxxers are the price we pay for a free and open society. To quote David Foster Wallace, there is a "baseline vulnerability" that a free society has (whether it be terrorism or the proliferation misinformation), and those that succumb to those vulnerabilities are "sacrifices on the altar of freedom." [0] [0] - https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2007/11/just-asking/306288/ https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2007/11/just-as...
pwinnski 6y ago
The actual quote, without breathless editorializing, is: "The irony is that it’s digital social media that allows this kind of titillating, oversimplistic explanation of, 'OK, there’s just an evil person, and that explains all of this.' And when you have [ ] encrypted, there is no way to know what it is. I personally believe government should not allow those types of lies or fraud or child pornography." I've removed Wired's additions within brackets, and suddenly it doesn't seem at all clear Gates is talking about end-to-end encryption directly. It might be said that is the only way to accomplish his wish, but when I first read the article I thought he could as easily be talking about legal remedies as anything else.

18 points by kiki_jiki 6y ago

tomcam 6y ago

This bears more research. Disturbing if true. Article is marred by inflammatory rhetoric.

jwineinger 6y ago

Even if true, he's just one (already rich) person.

maps7 6y ago
He's riding high on being correct about covid-19 so he is influential to a lot of people.

nikhizzle 6y ago

Is this real news? I see no mentions of primary sources, and when I do a google search I find some much older articles with much more context and nuance. I’m not sure I believe this in any way. It is taking quotes out of context, and creating an exaggeration.

crmrc114 6y ago
So clicking the wired link in the post then doing ctrl+f I found where they are getting this from https://www.wired.com/story/bill-gates-on-covid-most-us-tests-are-completely-garbage/ https://www.wired.com/story/bill-gates-on-covid-most-us-test... I think wired is generally not out there trying to libel people. I am honesty curious why Gates has been out of the public sphere for over ten years but is suddenly out there shilling against crypto for 'the children'.
- sequence7 6y ago
  I had a look at that article but I couldn't find where in that article he is "shilling against crypto for 'the children'". Can you share a quote?
  - m000 6y ago
    There are these: > When you have encrypted, there is no way to know what it is. I personally believe government should not allow those types of lies or fraud or child pornography. > Being big in the social media business is no simple game, like the encryption issue. Personally, I wouldn't call these quotes "shilling", but Gates does seem to have funny thoughts on encryption. Maybe half-baked, but he is smart enough to not voice half-baked thoughts on an interview. However, I'm also sceptical about the type of "free speech" reclaimthenet.org is advocating. The tone of the article is very sensationalistic, focusing more on calling-out Gates, rather than debunking his thoughts.
    - tfandango 6y ago
      I thought he seemed pretty exasperated in that interview on corona response. Maybe he let his guard down, I was surprised to read the encryption stuff too.
- victords 6y ago
  He's not been really out of the public sphere. He has always been involved in a number of social issues through his foundation and have been very vocal/public about them. Maybe we're just hearing a bit more about him and his thoughts because he's involved in looking for a way out of Covid through his foundation, and has famously 'predicted' something like this.
toyg 6y ago
I agree that this piece makes me file reclaimthenet.org under "fake-news spreading". I'm no Gates fan but I've rarely seen so much vitriol in so little space.

CryptoPunk 6y ago

He didn't outright advocate for it from the interview that I believe motivated this article, but he did pretty strongly imply that end-to-end encryption facilitates crime and shouldn't be allowed: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/28/bill-gates-lies-spread-faster-than-facts-on-social-media.html https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/28/bill-gates-lies-spread-faste... >“Some of the messages on their platform, they don’t even see because of the encryption on WhatsApp,” Gates said. “In order to not have any responsibility, they’ve made that opaque. You know, so whatever the issues — anti-vaccine, child pornography — they have made sure they can’t intervene on those things.”

orangepanda 6y ago
Ah the classic "why wont anyone think of the children" reasons.
Mountain_Skies 6y ago
Pretty much every freedom facilitates crime in one way or another.
cpr 6y ago
Nice equivocation of CP and asking critical questions about vaccine safety.
- happytoexplain 6y ago
  The term "anti-vaccine" does not refer to people who are only "asking critical questions about vaccine safety".
  - cpr 6y ago
    Sure it does. Anyone questioning the mainstream narrative is immediately labeled an "evil anti-vaxxer". Try it sometime.
snarf21 6y ago
This is very disappointing. My response for people on this side is this: Great, hand me your unlocked phone. I promise not to share anything with anyone else.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

DaniloDias 6y ago

Bill Gates’ narcissism is really on display lately. There is something in his interviews that suggest the guy cannot see where anyone can reasonably disagree with him on anything. He lumps everyone who disagrees with him into camps of crazies in an extraordinarily uncharitable way. Combine this fact with the public, 20 year lie that he is giving away his fortune, it’s time for him to step down from public life. He is damaging arguments that are good by attaching his reputation to them.

gnusty_gnurc 6y ago
sad to see a heterdox opinion that's articulated clearly without being needlessly abrasive get downvoted into oblivion
- happytoexplain 6y ago
  Wow - you don't think "Bill Gates’ narcissism is really on display lately" is needlessly abrasive?
  - gnusty_gnurc 6y ago
    that's not really abrasive, it's critical sure, but something like "gates is a pompous prick" is an abrasive way of saying he's a narcissist
  - DaniloDias 6y ago
    It may be uncharitable to diagnose a stranger. I have family with narcissism issues. It is nakedly obvious to me gates has the same issue. You kinda can’t blame him, given his financial status- but there are honest scientific people who disagree with his approach and he’s framing them all as conspiracy theorists.

sourthyme 6y ago

I don't believe there is a way to stop end-to-end encryption. You can easily make data look non-encrypted but actually contain something encrypted underneath.

m000 6y ago
a.k.a. steganography

NiceWayToDoIT 6y ago

Is this click-bait news, I cannot tell anymore?

gvhst 6y ago

Bill, I thought you were a pretty smart guy... Can't you think of anything that will increase public health knowledge and awareness (especially vaccines) that doesn't involve monitoring private conversations for goodthink? I think this is a very lazy way to go about you foundation's mission statement. If we can't (and I really don't think this is the case), then anti-vaxxers are the price we pay for a free and open society. To quote David Foster Wallace, there is a "baseline vulnerability" that a free society has (whether it be terrorism or the proliferation misinformation), and those that succumb to those vulnerabilities are "sacrifices on the altar of freedom." [0] [0] - https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2007/11/just-asking/306288/ https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2007/11/just-as...

pwinnski 6y ago

The actual quote, without breathless editorializing, is: "The irony is that it’s digital social media that allows this kind of titillating, oversimplistic explanation of, 'OK, there’s just an evil person, and that explains all of this.' And when you have [ ] encrypted, there is no way to know what it is. I personally believe government should not allow those types of lies or fraud or child pornography." I've removed Wired's additions within brackets, and suddenly it doesn't seem at all clear Gates is talking about end-to-end encryption directly. It might be said that is the only way to accomplish his wish, but when I first read the article I thought he could as easily be talking about legal remedies as anything else.