4 ms·

So the UK is now China it seems. What a shining light for democracy and justice. There is no way this will be abused by petty little tyrant minister right?

apopapo 8mo ago
Sadly it's not only the UK. There is a global push to restrict communication world-wide. The future is very bleak for fundamental freedoms.
- nexus6 8mo ago
  I’m not convinced anymore that we can handle freedom. Many children grow up glued to a phone or tablet watching AI videos and are targets of dis-information from foreign and/or hostile actors.
  - Refreeze5224 8mo ago
    We can't handle unchecked pursuit of profit, freedom isn't the issue.
    - pixl97 8mo ago
      The people who want unchecked pursuit of profit simply beat you to the punch by manipulating the social zeitgeist to accept that the unchecked pursuit of profit is the very definition of freedom.
  - pixl97 8mo ago
    It is a cynical view of humanity, but one that seems most correct. If for example there is a deadly virus going around people will quickly restrict freedoms to prevent its spread. And even in the case they don't people that believe in freedom over precautions are evolutionary culled. So what happens when the issue is actually infohazards? One of the common assumptions the freedom group makes is with all the information they have, anyone else would come to the same set of decisions they have. Of course I see two problems with this. 1. The freedom group is quite often hypocritical. That is, freedom is defined however they think, and anything outside of how they thing is "Not true freedom™". Elon Musk is a common source of this kind of freedom. 2. The individuals personal definition of freedom is anecdotal (We'll call this set A). Set A individual thinks by telling another individual with set B ideas on freedom that set A will win somehow? (A + B = A). That when you put ideas out there, by some magic process the best ideas win and take over and everything is happily ever after. Of course where number 2 commonly fails is if an infohazard is more addictive than actual knowledge, and where the inoculation to said addiction takes a long time to reach herd immunity. And example would be that it's faster to destroy a nation due to ragebait faster than open democracy can adjust, hence democracy always fails in these conditions. Nice catch-22 situation.
  - apopapo 8mo ago
    If "dis-information" is the core of the issue, then perhaps we ought to start banning religions? Despite doing that, China is a champion of spreading "dis-information" within their own walls. Hostile actors are not foreign, most often they are domestic. The biggest offenders are governments. Only freedom opposes their power, which is why they want to restrict it.
- dyauspitr 8mo ago
  Meh it’s accessing and posting stuff on the internet, not that big of a deal. I’d like to see a much bigger humdrum around the ubiquitous surveillance cameras that will eventually be fed to some sort of LLM to create an omniscient eye that follows everyone everywhere.
noosphr 8mo ago
That's deeply unfair. China's economy is growing.
- nekusar 8mo ago
  Yeah ive been watching whats happening with the URKL (United Robot Knockout League). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K62dK3Av334 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K62dK3Av334 Musk's jokes basically disassemble when doing a backflip. Fucking joke. Whereas the Chinese bots are doing Mui Thai, karate, and loads more. But... China is copying us <LAUGH>
10xDev 8mo ago
They are going to be missing out on top content https://www.instagram.com/popular/ai-generated-video-shorts/ https://www.instagram.com/popular/ai-generated-video-shorts/
webdevver 8mo ago
[dead]
sickofparadox 8mo ago
The UK already arrests more than 1,000 a month people for online "hate speech". Higher than the official numbers for China, whatever those are worth. They'll probably reach the unofficial, real number soon enough. https://www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/article/police-make-30-arrests-a-day-for-offensive-online-messages-zbv886tqf https://www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/article/police-make-30-arr...
- normie3000 8mo ago
  Sounds interesting..Paywalled.
- direwolf20 8mo ago
  Can you give some examples of the speech the UK arrests people for?
  - christkv 8mo ago
    https://www.the-independent.com/news/uk/home-news/wales-england-germany-freedom-house-ministry-of-public-security-b2900316.html https://www.the-independent.com/news/uk/home-news/wales-engl... You can get arrested for grossly offensive (completely subjective). Also they have a category called non-crime hate incidents (Hello Kafka) where they come to "intimidate" you without any charges being filed.
    - RansomStark 8mo ago
      That non crime hate incident goes on your criminal record and if you need an enhanced criminal records check, it will show up, and can be used to deny you employment. Its not just intimidation.
    - direwolf20 7mo ago
      You mean police acting is a non authoritative capacity to maintain public order?
  - RansomStark 8mo ago
    there's many to choose from, you can google for more. But here's what got Lucy Connolly a 31 month sentence: "Mass deportations, now, set fire to all the fucking hotels full of the bastards for all I care, if that makes me a racist, so be it". Racist maybe, although she doesn't seem to care about race. Offensive, yeah, seems that it could be interpreted as offensive, but thats not technically illegal (the high court has repeatedly affirmed to right to be offensive). Inciting violence (the offense she was convicted of) no, not at all, she was stating her political opinion and her belief that the lives of immigrants is worth less than british children. Although people will point out she admitted guilt, but the threat of significant pre-trail imprisonment was used a lot at this time to force guilty pleas.
fidotron 8mo ago
> So the UK is now China it seems Western governments have been looking enviously at China's authoritarianism (notoriously Trudeau blurted out he admired their "basic dictatorship" back in 2013) while completely ignoring any elements that might actually improve the lives of the citizens. Our politicians are determined to implement the worst of our respective systems.
direwolf20 8mo ago
The UK has been China forever, they have the most surveillance cameras and police home visits per capita of any developed country and their people like it this way.
- Steve16384 8mo ago
  Do you have a source on that? All I could find was this that said America has the most, behind China: https://www.tooltester.com/en/blog/the-worlds-most-surveilled-countries/ https://www.tooltester.com/en/blog/the-worlds-most-surveille...
YCpedohaven 8mo ago
Idk I’ve been watching the occasional BBC archives or some other old archive source, and the UK has seemed relatively authoritarian compared to Europe or the US for a while.
- deleted 8mo ago
  [deleted]
indiangenz 8mo ago
[flagged]

apopapo 8mo ago

Sadly it's not only the UK. There is a global push to restrict communication world-wide. The future is very bleak for fundamental freedoms.

nexus6 8mo ago
I’m not convinced anymore that we can handle freedom. Many children grow up glued to a phone or tablet watching AI videos and are targets of dis-information from foreign and/or hostile actors.
- Refreeze5224 8mo ago
  We can't handle unchecked pursuit of profit, freedom isn't the issue.
  - pixl97 8mo ago
    The people who want unchecked pursuit of profit simply beat you to the punch by manipulating the social zeitgeist to accept that the unchecked pursuit of profit is the very definition of freedom.
- pixl97 8mo ago
  It is a cynical view of humanity, but one that seems most correct. If for example there is a deadly virus going around people will quickly restrict freedoms to prevent its spread. And even in the case they don't people that believe in freedom over precautions are evolutionary culled. So what happens when the issue is actually infohazards? One of the common assumptions the freedom group makes is with all the information they have, anyone else would come to the same set of decisions they have. Of course I see two problems with this. 1. The freedom group is quite often hypocritical. That is, freedom is defined however they think, and anything outside of how they thing is "Not true freedom™". Elon Musk is a common source of this kind of freedom. 2. The individuals personal definition of freedom is anecdotal (We'll call this set A). Set A individual thinks by telling another individual with set B ideas on freedom that set A will win somehow? (A + B = A). That when you put ideas out there, by some magic process the best ideas win and take over and everything is happily ever after. Of course where number 2 commonly fails is if an infohazard is more addictive than actual knowledge, and where the inoculation to said addiction takes a long time to reach herd immunity. And example would be that it's faster to destroy a nation due to ragebait faster than open democracy can adjust, hence democracy always fails in these conditions. Nice catch-22 situation.
- apopapo 8mo ago
  If "dis-information" is the core of the issue, then perhaps we ought to start banning religions? Despite doing that, China is a champion of spreading "dis-information" within their own walls. Hostile actors are not foreign, most often they are domestic. The biggest offenders are governments. Only freedom opposes their power, which is why they want to restrict it.
dyauspitr 8mo ago
Meh it’s accessing and posting stuff on the internet, not that big of a deal. I’d like to see a much bigger humdrum around the ubiquitous surveillance cameras that will eventually be fed to some sort of LLM to create an omniscient eye that follows everyone everywhere.

noosphr 8mo ago

That's deeply unfair. China's economy is growing.

nekusar 8mo ago
Yeah ive been watching whats happening with the URKL (United Robot Knockout League). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K62dK3Av334 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K62dK3Av334 Musk's jokes basically disassemble when doing a backflip. Fucking joke. Whereas the Chinese bots are doing Mui Thai, karate, and loads more. But... China is copying us <LAUGH>

10xDev 8mo ago

They are going to be missing out on top content https://www.instagram.com/popular/ai-generated-video-shorts/ https://www.instagram.com/popular/ai-generated-video-shorts/

webdevver 8mo ago

[dead]

sickofparadox 8mo ago

The UK already arrests more than 1,000 a month people for online "hate speech". Higher than the official numbers for China, whatever those are worth. They'll probably reach the unofficial, real number soon enough. https://www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/article/police-make-30-arrests-a-day-for-offensive-online-messages-zbv886tqf https://www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/article/police-make-30-arr...

normie3000 8mo ago
Sounds interesting..Paywalled.
direwolf20 8mo ago
Can you give some examples of the speech the UK arrests people for?
- christkv 8mo ago
  https://www.the-independent.com/news/uk/home-news/wales-england-germany-freedom-house-ministry-of-public-security-b2900316.html https://www.the-independent.com/news/uk/home-news/wales-engl... You can get arrested for grossly offensive (completely subjective). Also they have a category called non-crime hate incidents (Hello Kafka) where they come to "intimidate" you without any charges being filed.
  - RansomStark 8mo ago
    That non crime hate incident goes on your criminal record and if you need an enhanced criminal records check, it will show up, and can be used to deny you employment. Its not just intimidation.
  - direwolf20 7mo ago
    You mean police acting is a non authoritative capacity to maintain public order?
- RansomStark 8mo ago
  there's many to choose from, you can google for more. But here's what got Lucy Connolly a 31 month sentence: "Mass deportations, now, set fire to all the fucking hotels full of the bastards for all I care, if that makes me a racist, so be it". Racist maybe, although she doesn't seem to care about race. Offensive, yeah, seems that it could be interpreted as offensive, but thats not technically illegal (the high court has repeatedly affirmed to right to be offensive). Inciting violence (the offense she was convicted of) no, not at all, she was stating her political opinion and her belief that the lives of immigrants is worth less than british children. Although people will point out she admitted guilt, but the threat of significant pre-trail imprisonment was used a lot at this time to force guilty pleas.

fidotron 8mo ago

> So the UK is now China it seems Western governments have been looking enviously at China's authoritarianism (notoriously Trudeau blurted out he admired their "basic dictatorship" back in 2013) while completely ignoring any elements that might actually improve the lives of the citizens. Our politicians are determined to implement the worst of our respective systems.

direwolf20 8mo ago

The UK has been China forever, they have the most surveillance cameras and police home visits per capita of any developed country and their people like it this way.

Steve16384 8mo ago
Do you have a source on that? All I could find was this that said America has the most, behind China: https://www.tooltester.com/en/blog/the-worlds-most-surveilled-countries/ https://www.tooltester.com/en/blog/the-worlds-most-surveille...

YCpedohaven 8mo ago

Idk I’ve been watching the occasional BBC archives or some other old archive source, and the UK has seemed relatively authoritarian compared to Europe or the US for a while.

deleted 8mo ago
[deleted]

indiangenz 8mo ago

[flagged]