OFCOM update: so apparently the embargoed press-release email was circulated to one (more?) of their general discussion maillists, which I feel symbolic of their approach towards security

Highlights are as follows:


  • they will be “fast-tracking” their decision to force apps and sites (“tech firms”, of course, because all apps and sites are “tech firms”) bringing the decision forward
  • their proposal will be that everyone be forced to use fuzzy-image-matching, which they dress up as “perceptual-” or “hash-matching”, but it’s an old tech wrapped up in legal agreements with inadequate oversight
  • they frame this as a means to combat non-consensual deep-fakes, even though those are not currently a large part of the extant “hash databases” in use by the likes of Meta, which are geared at CSAM and Terrorism
  • management of such databases, and likewise logging of the queries where those databases are offered as an “outsource service” — clearly this is where the money will be made — both lead to major security issues; this is not mentioned
  • they will decide in May and expect other legalities to be sorted by “this summer”
Fediverse reactions

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