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EU Revives Plan for Year-Long Online Data Retention | Reclaim the Net
A Council paper now circulating (via Netzpolitik) among member states outlines a plan that would apply not only to telecom operators but to nearly every major digital service, including cloud platforms, domain hosts, payment processors, and even end-to-end encrypted messengers such as WhatsApp and Signal. Officials insist they do not intend to compromise encryption or
Fediverse reactions
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The American Counter-Offensive Against Foreign Censorship Should Be Bipartisan | Preston Byrne
On the center-left: Reddit, Wikipedia. On the center-right: X, Rumble, Truth Social. On the right: Gab. Somewhere off in the fourth dimension, nowhere to be seen on the map: Kiwi and 4chan. Everyone’s fighting back, across the political spectrum, because we all know that every American is threatened by foreign censorship. https://prestonbyrne.com/2025/12/12/the-u-s-counter-offensive-against-foreign-censorship-should-be-bipartisan/
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Banning children from online games, and spying on every device: Why we must oppose Baroness Benjamin’s attack on liberty | LibDem Voice
Finally the Liberal Democrats are hearing the other side of the “safety” issue: [If] one Liberal Democrat peer has her way, no one under the age of 16 would be able to play an online game that allows them to talk or interact with another player. Baroness Benjamin is backing a series of illiberal amendments
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Age Verification Is Coming For the Internet. We Built You a Resource Hub to Fight Back | EFF
…we’re launching EFF’s Age Verification Resource Hub (EFF.org/Age): a one-stop shop to understand what these laws actually do, what’s at stake, why EFF opposes all forms of age verification, how to protect yourself, and how to join the fight for a free, open, private, and yes—safe—internet. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/12/age-verification-coming-internet-we-built-you-resource-hub-fight-back
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January 15th: EFFecting Change: The Human Cost of Online Age Verification | EFF
Live stream panel session: Join EFF’s Rindala Alajaji and Alexis Hancock along with Hana Memon from Gen-Z for Change and Cynthia Conti-Cook from Collaborative Research Center for Resilience for a conversation about what we stand to lose as more and more governments push to age-gate the web. https://www.eff.org/event/effecting-change-human-cost-online-age-verification#main-content
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ERRATA: Baroness Benjamin et al. wish to ban children under the age of *18* from using VPNs; that’s better than 16, isn’t it?
This “child” is someone who will have been voting for 2 years. Possibly they will even be at university. https://bills.parliament.uk/publications/63901/documents/7465 page 19.
Fediverse reactions
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Crowley: “For my money, the really big one will be all of Us against all of Them”
Below, me, in 2014/earlier, reflecting upon the perpetual war of intelligence agencies upon & against their citizens’ privacy. Elsewhere: Politico reports “How a new Russia-China-US network could work…” archived at https://archive.ph/IUvMS
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AND FINALLY: UK House of Lords demands client-side scanning of content to check for “viewing of CSAM”
There’s a kind of Orwellian inevitability to this: “Action to promote the wellbeing of children by combating child sexual abuse material (CSAM) … (2) The “CSAM requirement” is that any relevant device supplied for use in the UK must have installed tamper-proof system software which is highly effective at preventing the recording, transmitting (by any
Fediverse reactions
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IT GETS WORSE: UK House of Lords attempting to ban use of VPNs by anyone under 16
This is deranged, each nation’s boomers and reactionaries attempting to outdo the others: “Action to prohibit the provision of VPN services to children in the United Kingdom” … the provider of any Relevant VPN Service which is, or is likely to be — (i) offered or marketed to persons in the United Kingdom; (ii) provided
Fediverse reactions