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James Ball: On almost everything…evidence suggests that over 60s are in much more urgent need of online protection and education than teenagers…
“…But that issue gets zero political attention”. Truth: Links to: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cz7y2xyxg7vo
Fediverse reactions
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State Department confirms: federal censorship shield law incoming | Preston Byrne
:popcorn: Sarah Rogers, United States Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy, confirmed that the US is poised to forever block foreign censorship of US citizens under laws like the UK Online Safety Act or the EU Digital Services Act. https://prestonbyrne.com/2026/01/28/state-department-confirms-federal-granite-act-incoming/
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Will Congress shield the US from foreign attacks on the First Amendment? | Spectator | Ofcom & British civil society does not understand the 1st amendment
“The only answer to the foreign censorship problem is law reform. Congress should make it clear that foreign censors cross our border at their peril. The only way to accomplish this is to enact federal shield legislation, like GRANITE, that strips sovereign immunity for foreign censorship and makes the consequences so ruinous that such threats
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Somebody used spoofed ADSB signals to raster the meme of JD Vance over Mar-a-Lago using AF2 ICAO identity
This, if it is still visible: https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=adfdf9&lat=26.678&lon=-80.030&zoom=14.4&showTrace=2026-01-28 Via: Next up, age verification for ADSB?
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WhatsApp’s new ‘Strict Account Settings’ Adds Lockdown-Style Protection Against Spyware |CyberScoop
While safety activists are still whining about 2 billion people in the world getting communications privacy: The “Strict Account Settings” feature will roll out in the coming weeks and once enabled, will allow users to limit features in certain ways, such as blocking attachments and media from others not in a user’s contact list. https://cyberscoop.com/whatsapp-strict-account-settings-lockdown-style-spyware-protection/
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One-Ended Encryption / OEE | JP Aumasson
Bravo, this is a very necessary tool for certain people: You’d have to be braindead to believe AES is secure in 2026. When we analyzed how AES implemented its “encryption”, we found multiple attack vectors. Use OEE instead https://github.com/veorq/oee
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“The UK war on VPNs is an embarrassment” | Jimmy Wales
Quote: The UK war on VPNs is an embarassment. For child safety, we should be teaching children about Internet safety – including why you should use a VPN to protect your privacy, block malware, etc. To keep children safe, we are legislating to prevent them being safer online? Mad. https://x.com/jimmy_wales/status/2015799679762448515?s=20
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“Much of what people want to solve with the [online safety act] is actually [better] solved with a search warrant and an arrest” | Preston Byrne
Truth; see also embedded commentary from Graham Smith: Much of what people want to solve with the OSA is actually solved with a search warrant and an arrest. Because the OSA is the flagship online safety law, however, everyone wants it – and Ofcom – to solve all of the online problems.
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Content Moderation History: do we all remember 2013-19 when online sociology pundits were everywhere expounding the need to block streaming/sharing of video of people being murdered?
It began in the wake of various atrocities (civil unrest, government oppression, rioting, live streamed mass shootings) and over generalisations which tended to cite Facebook as at least the “amplifier” if not the “cause” of violence, especially due to risk of “copycats”. The Christchurch mosque shootings were one such atrocity, and we can draw a
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“[In the modern era] what threats do VPNs protect against?”
Answer, to a limited extent: jingoistic patriotism, xenophobic populism, theories of speech as a “harm” demanding “duties of care”, state-mandated enumeration of citizens in doomed attempts to negate online anonymity, and attempts to limit or censor access to apps and websites and content. Not “people in the coffee shop may be spying on your banking
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Microsoft Gave FBI BitLocker Encryption Keys, Exposing Privacy Flaw | Forbes
This is the future of which GCHQ wants for all global encryption: “Microsoft confirmed to Forbes that it does provide BitLocker recovery keys if it receives a valid legal order. “While key recovery offers convenience, it also carries a risk of unwanted access, so Microsoft believes customers are in the best position to decide… how
Fediverse reactions
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Anarchist Calisthenics: teaching people to break misconceived little rules before they have to break the totalitarian big ones
Online Censorship, Age Verification & Social Media Bans are misconceived, illiberal, mass-harmful little rules that we must teach our teens to circumvent, so they have context, understanding & wherewithal to break big totalitarian ones they’ll eventually encounter. Of course they will need to learn & understand what the rules were trying to achieve as well
Fediverse reactions