zlacker

>>ANewbu+(OP)
I don't think these laws are being made with the will of the people.

There's been no groundswell of opinion, no technically minded authority pushing expert opinion.

The same people lobbying for the online safety act were pushing age verification tools. The government is exceptionally unpopular, even by the standards of already deeply unpopular governments in recent years.

I despair of the situation in the UK. How have we ended up here?

>>cs02rm+lp2
And how has Australia ended up in a similar situation[1] - coming this December?

My guess is that the common factor is News Corporation pushing an agenda on behalf of the very, very wealthy.

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/AustralianPolitics/comments/1nu68je...

>>naruho+7q2
At least recently[1] most Australians and an overwhelming percentage of under-16s supported the ban. Similarly in the UK[2]. This is a topic in which it appears it is the online discourse that's wildly out of alignment with broader public opinion and I'd argue potentially one of the reasons may be that it will make it harder for bot-nets to mass-manipulate public discourse so easily.

[1]https://au.yougov.com/politics/articles/51000-support-for-un...

[2]https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/gen-z-social...

>>msy+Aq2
I think people support a lot of things in theory. But in practice, less so. Probably because they're often implemented in ways prone to abuse or simply unfair to an average citizen.