13 ms·
Show HN: Use Their ID – Use your local UK MP’s ID for the Online Safety Act
Hi HN -
I made a site that takes a UK postcode, grabs the local MP's information and generates an AI mockup of what their ID might look like.
It's a small, silly protest at the stupidity of the Online Safety Act that just came into force.
edit - My open AI credits got hugged to death, please use a known postcode (like one from Kier Starmer's constituency, WC2B6NH) in the meantime.
- thorum 1y agoUnintended side effect, UK MPs can now watch as much porn as they want with plausible deniability.
- ben_w 1y agoUnless they're being filmed while watching it because they watched it in parliament: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/neil-parish-banged-up-tractor-porn-b2439583.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/neil-parish-b...
- NekkoDroid 1y agoDidn't something similar also happen recently in the US (I think on a state level)?
- lambertsimnel 1y agoThat was Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters: https://www.snopes.com/news/2025/07/28/oklahoma-superintendent-ryan-walters/ https://www.snopes.com/news/2025/07/28/oklahoma-superintende...
- ljm 1y agoI don’t know about this law specifically, but every other law attacking the internet or encryption has attempted to exempt people in government. That defeats the point of the legislation since it creates a gaping wide backdoor to exploit official people, who are now the most valuable targets because of that exemption. Never mind the matter of providing a rule for the people and making the people who made the rule immune to it.
- varispeed 1y agoHave they researched how many of these "age check" companies are actually run by Russian intelligence services?
- spacebanana7 1y agoEven having a single employee linked to the Russian intelligence services would be sufficient.
- dom96 1y agoAre the generated images supposed to look like the MP? they look nothing like it as far as I can see.
- protocolture 1y agoIf you really want to piss off the UK government, add a comment section.
- bashtoni 1y agoWhen I tried it with the Walthamstow constituency the ID used a , as a date separator instead of a . Seems odd, but probably wouldn't be noticed by an automated validator anyway.
- timje1 1y agoThey're definitely not perfect. I wouldn't want them to be perfect, then they might be used for something nefarious. The mock IDs use fake details and fake faces, and don't even attempt to get the watermarks and machine readable parts right.
- spullara 1y agouk ain't playin' these days, i would take it down if you are under their jurisdiction
- HeartStrings 1y agoWorld belongs to the brave.
- qualeed 1y agoI like the spirit but wouldn't this run afoul of one or two laws? Identity fraud or some such? I'm not in the UK, so I don't have any idea about their laws, but I'd be shocked to find this was above board. Your FAQ claims it's a parody site and claims "The ID number isn't valid and you can't use the card for anything real." but you've just confirmed here it can indeed be used for real things (discord, reddit). Your domain registration is UK-based, so, be careful!
- Mindwipe 1y agoThe only way you'd ever get found out is if the affected MP was lying to the public and the identity documents do indeed get retained...
- qualeed 1y ago>The only way you'd ever get found out is if the affected MP was lying to the public and the identity documents do indeed get retained... I'm more talking about the developer of the site rather than the users. And the developer could potentially be found out if they posted it on a popular hacking website and used a known alias and registered the domain in the UK. But, if they're comfortable, all the more power to them. As I said, I do really like the spirit of the site.
- shubb 1y agoIf I was that developer, I'd blacklist embedding of all British MPs and councilors to avoid fraud. This would also block the entire UK political class from accessing adult materials (I got blocked by a wine forum), which would be a very effective protest...
- arrowsmith 1y agoThe generated addresses aren't real. It gave a London address for my MP; I know where he lives and it isn't London. Most MPs' home addresses are actually quite easy to find. Mine's was printed below his name on the ballot paper last election – a nice reminder of how we used to have a high-trust society. I doubt this practice will be continued for much longer.
- Muromec 1y ago>It's a small, silly protest at the stupidity of the Online Safety Act that just came into force. The IDs actually work (for Reddit, Discord etc.) which highlights how terrible this implementation is. Could you give a short TL;DR of how ids are constructed so we can all laugh here in comments?
- timje1 1y agoit's literally just the MPs name. It's a fake DoB (because their DoB's aren't public knowledge anymore) all the numbers and such are nonsense, the images wouldn't fool a human for one second. The AI tools don't let you generate an ID for any real human being (because that sounds like all sorts of fraud) so you can't upload a picture of the MP or anything like that - so I just let the model fill in whatever face it thinks is appropriate for the given name.
- arrowsmith 1y ago> because their DoB's aren't public knowledge anymore Most are on Wikipedia, no?
- tialaramex 1y agoEven if they weren't, most MPs will be old enough that their top level Birth Records are available, so if they don't have a common name or you know enough biographical details you can find them anyway. If they've got a weird name like Elon Musk you just go name -> DOB in one step, if they're a Sarah Black maybe you need to know approximate age, birth name, rough part of the country where they were born. For super common names like John Smith you will need to know the mother's name, year and specific location of birth at which point yeah you're closer to just knowing their DoB anyway.
- arrowsmith 1y agowhere are these public birth records?
- DalasNoin 1y agoAlways tells me that the MP wasn't found for my selected area.
- timje1 1y agowhat's the postcode?
- bargainbin 1y agoJust like any other interaction with your local MP…
- crinkly 1y agoHey now, mine's pretty responsive. Just the response is about as useful as letting a chimp at a typewriter.
- elthran 1y agoAh, you must be a Clacton resident then
- Mindwipe 1y agoAlways tells me an MP can't be found despite multiple attempts.
- philipwhiuk 1y agoAre you putting in a valid UK postcode?
- timje1 1y agoSeems like open AI is rate limiting me for a minute, I didn't expect to get top of HN this quickly. Use Starmer's for now - WC2B6NH
- dom96 1y agoWhy didn't you just create the images for all 650 MPs ahead of time?
- timje1 1y agoBecause that's expensive as hell and I didn't know if anyone would visit the site..
- dom96 1y agoReally? Does it really cost that much to generate a single image like this?
- timje1 1y agoyeah to generate a photo of reasonable quality it costs like $.18, so multiply that by 650ish MPs and you have a pretty expensive lil parody site...
- aspenmayer 1y agoMake hay while the sun shines. ~$120 upfront would make this an order of magnitude more expensive than a vanity domain name already, but if you had precomputed and cached them you’d be capitalizing on the viral momentum.
- dannyobrien 1y agoAs someone who was involved in the original guerilla digital activism that spawned the third-person URL format for independent UK government-watching websites (ie "Write to Them", "They Work for You"), I applaud your on-topic brand extension, Tim :)
- pjc50 1y agoThanks for your activism Danny - by coincidence I'm wearing an ancient NTK tshirt today, from a simpler era of the internet.
- dcminter 1y agoAlas the ntkmart domain is being squatted by someone and I presume the shop was inactive long before that. I loved the Elite-style shirt but mine left this mortal plane long ago.
- timje1 1y agoThanks Danny - it was indeed following 'They Work For You' - I'm a big fan of that site.
- smagdali 1y agoI'm proud to say that the "They Work For You" was actually one of mine (or my recollection is both vain, and broke) :) Let's not forget that Matthew Somerville did (and still does!) most of the actual work tho.
- evil-olive 1y agoit's a bit buried in the FAQ - if you're a non-UK user like I am and just want to see what the output looks like, Keir Starmer's postcode is WC2B6NH so inputting that will give you an already-generated example of the output.
- arrowsmith 1y ago> Keir Starmer's postcode is WC2B6NH It's actually the postcode of a WeWork in Holborn (which happens to be in Starmer's constituency.) Keir Starmer's postcode is SW1A 2AA.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- 1a527dd5 1y agoI think this is a fun project, but I'm not sure I'd leave this up for much longer. MPs can be litigious. Especially if this is seen to be enabling things like ID fraud. Also, there are only 650 constituencies. I would pre-populate the list so when entering a new postcode, it doesn't stall waiting for AI.
- Spivak 1y agoYou want a different photo each time to avoid easy filter lists.
- crinkly 1y agoMPs will be immediately trying to hang the civil service for telling them this was a good idea. Don't expect legal action. Do expect buck passing.
- travisgriggs 1y agoI wish there was a modern day version of "Yes, [Prime] Minister" for this kind of stuff. It's like the episodes could write themselves by the week.
- crinkly 1y agoWell having worked for the government in an ancillary security role about 20 years ago on contract, I don't think they could produce a parody notably worse than reality to use as a contrast. Today, I suspect it is worse. Hire an expert they said. From the pool of experts they had heard about through contacts in the civil service. None of whom have any industry or real world experience. At best, someone was on an industry eating and drinking with the right people panel. I was there for 3 months and crawled back to my previous job cap in hand, bruised and educated. It was long enough ago that I can away with rounding errors of months on my CV thank goodness...
- crinkly 1y agoThis is great. Weaponising the stupidity of the idea, compromising it entirely until it's so obviously ineffectual it's unenforceable, then going after the politicians who pushed it for the waste of money and effort. Create a scandal. Bad PR is the only way out now.
- gardnr 1y agoIt looks like the code was/is going to be published? From the FAQ: > How did you do this? > This site uses React for the frontend and Node.js for the backend. The MP data is fetched from the UK government public API, and the AI-generated images use the latest model from open AI. The images are stored on a Cloudflare R2 bucket. The code is open source, so you can check it out on GitHub. It was done in a hurry. The git repo linked from that FAQ shows a 404: https://github.com/timje/use-my-mps-id https://github.com/timje/use-my-mps-id
- yegle 1y agoChinese Netizens are very familiar with Xi Jinping's national ID number precisely for this reason :-) ID verification is enforced on all Chinese websites. People figured out they can just use Xi's ID number.
- djrj477dhsnv 1y ago> ID verification is enforced on all Chinese websites. Is that really true? So search engines? News sites? Pseudo-anonymous discussion forums?
- bobsmooth 1y agoYes. You need an ID to use the internet.
- qingcharles 1y agoWhat about visitors?
- anonzzzies 1y agoStop talking nonsense.
- raincole 1y agoDon't listen to the sibling commenter who doesn't know what they're talking about. No, you don't need ID verification to use search engine or read news in China. However, sites that depend on user-generated content (like forums) would ask for at least your phone number.
- spuz 1y agoI'd be interested to know which if any of the ID verification services were fooled by this.
- verytrivial 1y agoDo please take a moment to consider which MPs carry the burden here. It's mainly a single flavour. Mention it on the doorstep next time. https://votes.parliament.uk/votes/commons/division/1926 https://votes.parliament.uk/votes/commons/division/1926
- crinkly 1y agoWhat a fucking mess. Labour voted in conservative policy. Conservatives voted against it. Reform, whilst all over the news for being against it, voted for it.
- graemep 1y agoMost Reform MPs did not vote at all! Neither did a lot of conservatives and labour, interestingly. Greens and Lib Dems voted no, which raises my opinion of them. Agreed its a mess.
- piker 1y agoAny abstention is at best in the same column as the ayes here. Arguably worse.
- oneeyedpigeon 1y agoJust for the benefit of those unfamiliar with UK politics: "most" is a bit misleading here, even though it's technically true. Reform has 4 MPs (out of 650).
- ta1243 1y agoWow, so they've lost 40% of the original lot which were elected last year. But for some reason the press seems to think they're the official opposition. They have the same number of MPs as the Green party, fewer than the DUP, half the SNP, and about 1/20th of the Lib Dems. I note 75% of them didn't bother turning up to work, I'm shocked one did.
- jojobas 1y ago
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- jonplackett 1y agoAre you just using ChatGPT api to make the images? I’m surprised it would let you make driving licenses. If so it’d be kinda crazy to go after you if anyone can just make an image like this in ChatGPT anyway. It get all sorts of complaints from it and then it eventually says it’ll make one but only someone similar and only similar to a uk licensed and then makes something pretty close to reality - but not as recognisable as yours.
- ewfwef 1y ago[dead]
- billy99k 1y ago[flagged]
- patmcc 1y agoWow, people who walked near the capital were thrown in prison. Really? Just walked near the capital. Didn't break in, attack cops, destroy property. Really. Just walked near the capital. Wow that's crazy.
- Throwkin 1y ago[dead]
- billy99k 1y ago"Just walked near the capital. Didn't break in, attack cops, destroy property. " I don't think you followed the story or cared because it involved people you didn't like. Yes, there were people that destroyed property. Others didn't even know what was going on at the time and were let into the capital building by police officers and were arrested anyway. The Democrats in the UK were arresting people for just voicing their opinions over the last year. No outrage. Now that the UK is trying to prevent children from getting hurt online: total outrage. It always seems to involve children..
- patmcc 1y ago>>>Others didn't even know what was going on at the time and were let into the capital building by police officers and were arrested anyway. If you're part of a mob and the police get out of your way that's not them "letting you in", that's them falling back as opposed to causing more violence. I think J6 folks were treated extremely gently, all things considered. If the guy in front of you breaks down a door and then you walk in behind him, you're also doing something wrong. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/capitol-police-waving-video/ https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/capitol-police-waving-vide... for a specific fact check to the "police waved them in" claim. >>>The Democrats in the UK Those aren't the Democrats. I do think the UK is going too far with their speech controls and their "online safety" laws.
- SilverElfin 1y agoWon’t the government force these websites to do some kind of stronger identity verification in the future? I worry that it’ll even come with broader support when the EU or whoever implements ID verification for protecting children or banning misinformation or whatever.
- GaggiX 1y ago>Won’t the government force these websites to do some kind of stronger identity verification in the future? These heckin' kids needs more protection. I suggest banning all VPNs too, only this way kids are truly protected like they are in China and Iran.
- rdm_blackhole 1y agoNo, they ll require you to put a camera in your home to watch you while you verify your identity online. This way they will know for sure that it was you who upload your id. Then they will need someone else to watch the camera in case it gets tampered with.
- wonderwonder 1y agoHow does this new policy not end with promising upstart political careers being torpedoed when the party in power “accidentally” leaks their porn history? There is no way the intelligence community doesn’t have a back door to this. Vote how we want on this bill or your embarrassing history just gets found
- natewww 1y agolove this, nice work
- Arubis 1y agoThis is the sort of thing that brought me into tech in the first place, before it became the villain it had started off fighting: humorous, effective pushback against stodgy power structures. More please!
- jrockway 1y agoThis is so good. Not only does it get you past the verification screen, it infects the next generation of AI models with AI slop, and it adds MPs to a list of suspicious names that are likely fraud. That means that it ruins the Internet for MPs, which is just wonderful. Like, I legitimately think that Starmer might have extra trouble signing up for things now. All in all, one of those ideas that sounds good on the surface, but the more you think about it the better it gets.
- throw2805 1y agoIn UK you get arrested for a mere tweet if it hurts anyone's feelings and it's called democracy. Unbelievable. Btw UK surpassed Russia in these kinda arrests
- Throwkin 1y ago[dead]
- spacebanana7 1y agoOP's comment is only slightly misleading. Per the myth detector [1]: ".... similar comparisons, stating that 3,300 people were arrested in the UK while only 400 in Russia, have circulated on social media for years. The original source of this claim is Konstantin Kisin, a Russia-born, half-British comedian, writer, and podcast co-host. His interview, where he makes this comparison [at 26:26], was recorded in 2019, based on data from 2016-2017. For years, social media users have relied on Kisin’s statements to compare Russia and the UK. Many refer to data from the human rights group Agora, which reported that 411 people faced prosecution in Russia in 2017 for social media activity. In the majority of cases, media users were accused of [....] what authorities consider provocative content. On the other hand, UK comparisons are often based on a 2017 article in The Times, which cited 2016 data showing that over 3,300 people were arrested or questioned under Section 127 of the Communications Act. However, the same article notes that in half of these cases, investigations were dropped before prosecution. Additionally, Section 127 is not limited to social media, and it also applies to emails and other forms of electronic communication. Moreover, the Russian figure represents prosecutions, while the UK figure represents arrests, making the comparison inappropriate for many reasons. For example, the content of the clauses differs: in the UK, they are applied to a broader range of cases, while the data from Russia reflects arrests for the activity on social media. Additionally, the analysis of cases shows the difference between the two countries in the application of the laws. In Russia, many citizens and journalists have been arrested for expressing critical opinions or posting government-opposed views on social media. It is also worth noting that in the UK, cases brought under Section 127 that result in citizens being subjected to community service or fines are often debated." The article I've cited mainly discusses a comparison by Guri Sultanishvili which is harder to justify, but Konstantin Kisin's comments have been more widely referenced in the public debate. [1] https://mythdetector.com/en/free-expression-on-the-internet/ https://mythdetector.com/en/free-expression-on-the-internet/
- mensetmanusman 1y agoThe UK has been a police state for decades, why are people surprised by this?
- Steve16384 1y agoCompared to where?
- unwind 1y agoMeta: typo in title, says "Dd" instead of "Id".
- tomhow 1y agoMy bad, fixed now.
- physicsguy 1y ago'MP not found for that postcode.'
- camtarn 1y agoThis is hilarious. Very well done.
- JAnonSmith 1y ago[dead]
- jakkos 1y agoIt's a matter of time before the online safety act leads to horrendous data breaches. Once it's normalized to have to show your id to visit sites, any website will be able to pretend it's using a third party verification service but just save your id and sell the data on what you were doing. The blackmail trade will be incredibly lucrative.
- ta1243 1y agoYour MP Name: Mike Wood Party: Conservative Constituency: Stafford Err, Stafford has been Labour since the last election, and before that it was a Conservative, but it was Theodora Clarke. Mike Wood is MP for Kingswinford and South Staffordshire. Surely the way you build something like this is a postcode -> constituency table (I assume available free), a constituency -> mp table, and mp -> image generation (with caching or generate multiple versions) Even if the lookup data mis-selected the constituency (I think some postcodes can straddle constituencies), surely the Constituency/Name/Party would be consistent. I'm guessing you're using chat-gpt for the entire program?
- timje1 1y agoNope! Office of national statistics published a CSV for postcode -> constituency name [ https://geoportal.statistics.gov.uk/datasets/6f2f35a9a0b94e7e949eeba7785911d4/about https://geoportal.statistics.gov.uk/datasets/6f2f35a9a0b94e7... ], and then the official gov.uk parliament API for a constituency name -> MP lookup [ https://members-api.parliament.uk/index.html https://members-api.parliament.uk/index.html ]. So all of the data is the officially available data. I humbly posit that this is a publicly owned bug.
- ta1243 1y agoI would guess you're taking the constituency name and doing something like this: https://members-api.parliament.uk/api/Location/Constituency/Search?searchText=Stafford&skip=0&take=20 https://members-api.parliament.uk/api/Location/Constituency/... returns three constituencies, all of which look fine to me, but the "Stafford" one is the middle, and you're using the data from the first returned constituency
- vonneumannstan 1y agoThis sounds funny but it probably gets you sentenced to 10 years of hard labor in the King's coal mine or something similarly draconian.
- profstasiak 1y agoThe government has a monopoly on violence and I believe they will use their violence here. I am not a layer but identity theft is a first thing that comes to mind
- ReflectedImage 1y agoIf you are just looking to get pass the age check: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SU9K1LsgX7c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SU9K1LsgX7c will do it.
- eventH0rizon 1y ago[dead]
- bob2002 1y ago[flagged]
- 123456west 1y agoWc2b6nh