The U.K. Parliament is pushing ahead with a sprawling internet regulation bill that will, among other things, undermine the privacy of people around the world. The Online Safety Bill, now at the final stage before passage in the House of Lords, gives the British government the ability to force backdoors into messaging services, which will destroy end-to-end encryption. No amendments have been accepted that would mitigate the bill’s most dangerous elements. If it passes, the Online Safety Bill will be a huge step backwards for global privacy, and democracy itself.
Just two years ago the politicians fearmongered that quantum computers will break every encryption without delay. This bill speaks quite different story.
They will… when they finally get invented. For now though, law enforcement will have to do annoying things like “following the word of law” and convincing judges who clearly do not understand the national security implications of kids going to the wrong school to give them warrants.