3 ms·

I have some dumb questions - how do you ban encryption? How do you ban open source tools that implement encryption? Do you fine and jail people who have the cod

I have some dumb questions - how do you ban encryption? How do you ban open source tools that implement encryption? Do you fine and jail people who have the code on their devices? How do you implement the policy of banning certain types of code? How about SSH? Are corporations and banks included in the ban? I don't think you can. Its like banning bitcoin - you can't unless you ban the internet altogether. Western lawmakers really don't understand tech or the second order consequences of their actions. Do they think they get to keep encryption for "national security" for themselves while the citizens don't? Hello, do you realize the signal protocol is open source? My prediction - EU and US lawmakers die of old age before writing even one definitive line of policy that would regulate encryption. Or regulation fails completely, like how the EU tried to regulate data collection via GDPR but we got annoying pop ups instead. And btw, criminals use tor, not i-message. SMH.

Threeve303 6y ago
Taken to an extreme, banning encryption is like criminalizing math.
Quarrelsome 6y ago
> Western lawmakers really don't understand tech or the second order consequences of their actions our political systems blow in terms of getting people that know this stuff to legislate on it. Closest we've had to the US throne was Yang (?) and I've heard him talk and I don't think he's fam.
kawsper 6y ago
You don't ban the tools, but you hold up dissidents that refuse to hand over their keys in prison as contempt of court, that is what happens in the UK at the moment: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_disclosure_law#United_Kingdom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_disclosure_law#United_King...
- game_the0ry 6y ago
  That is interesting, I did not know that.
mrtksn 6y ago
Governments can ban anything through denying infrastructure. Think alcohol regulations, you can say that “are they going to ban chemistry” but as it turns out they can indeed ban chemistry. You can distill alcohol at home but if you want to do business through any infrastructure that’s possible thanks to the existence of the government(legal systems, banking etc) you will have to ask for permission despite the fact that the government doesn’t have any influence over the laws of nature.

Threeve303 6y ago

Taken to an extreme, banning encryption is like criminalizing math.

Quarrelsome 6y ago

> Western lawmakers really don't understand tech or the second order consequences of their actions our political systems blow in terms of getting people that know this stuff to legislate on it. Closest we've had to the US throne was Yang (?) and I've heard him talk and I don't think he's fam.

kawsper 6y ago

You don't ban the tools, but you hold up dissidents that refuse to hand over their keys in prison as contempt of court, that is what happens in the UK at the moment: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_disclosure_law#United_Kingdom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_disclosure_law#United_King...

game_the0ry 6y ago
That is interesting, I did not know that.

mrtksn 6y ago

Governments can ban anything through denying infrastructure. Think alcohol regulations, you can say that “are they going to ban chemistry” but as it turns out they can indeed ban chemistry. You can distill alcohol at home but if you want to do business through any infrastructure that’s possible thanks to the existence of the government(legal systems, banking etc) you will have to ask for permission despite the fact that the government doesn’t have any influence over the laws of nature.