Outlawing encryption in a bill that is unironically titled as an "Online Safety" bill is really fucking Orwellian.

Yep. Doublespeak on display.

And both the people that use it will be devastated!

Not sure why the majority need encryption like that. For public safety I'm happy if it stops terrorists bombing our children etc.

I wonder if it's just coincidence that the authors of things like 1984, Brave new world and Brazil are all from the UK and whether it was just them seeing what the future would possibly be like here or the Tories using them as inspiration because they are from here.

There's two of us now?

Damn, time to look for something less crowded.

Do you think it would actually stop that? Because it wouldn't. Do you think you're safer if it's easier for other people to get into your private messages? Because you aren't.

Actually I've been seeing a big uptick lately. A year ago it sat idle for me because no one I knew used it. Now it's about a third of my conversations, maybe more. I'm quite happy about that. The competing platforms for "message people in a sensible way across platforms" are basically Google chat (whatever they're calling it this week), and Facebook messenger, and I feel much more comfortable with signal over those two. Oh, there's Discord too, but not many people use that as their regular one-on-one messenger.

Thing the bill is a unworkable mess that it is likely to collapse under its own weight just look at the last UK age verification law that was delayed over and over again until it was quietly scraped.

But how? I've used VPNs to download apps unavailable in my country, what would stop Brits from doing the same?

I think it's less about people actually getting it and more about not "officially" supporting it in the UK so they're not subject to the laws there.

So, just because you can't think of a reason why I need encryption means I don't need it?

I can tell you one thing, it will absolutely not stop terrorists bombing anything.