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Madness spreading like a plague

The madness of internet censorship, restriction and surveillance is spreading like a plague.

First it was the UK with its Online Safety Act.

Then it was Australia with its eSafety Commissioner directing age-restrictions and compulsory age-checks on most social media platforms.

Now YouTube itself is planning to introduce AI-based age verification for US users and demanding government ID or biometric data for those who have been falsely classified as under 16.

The world has truly gone crazy.

I see lots of chatter on social media regarding these changes and there are plenty of upset people decrying the over-reach of their government but I have seen no practical moves by anyone to actually engage in action that might force a rethink.

In the UK there has a petition that has gathered over 400,000 signatures as of the time and date I write this but such petitions count for nothing in terms of forcing change. In fact, I'm sure the UK government will argue that a mere 400,000 signatures prove that the vast majority of UK residents actually approve of the Act and its powers.

Sadly, I think the only way that any of this over-reach will be rewound is for regular folk to start marching in the streets with placards and loud shouty voices. Unfortunately for those who might consider such an avenue of protest in the UK, the rather draconian powers now given to police mean that they run the risk of arrest and prosecution under numerous provisions designed to squash civil unrest.

Australians are even more impotent when it comes to "pushing back" against oppression by their government.

X (formerly Twitter) has been alive with indignant criticisms of the Australian government and its eSaftey Commissioner but there hasn't been a single protest, a single march in the streets or a single form of actual, real-world protest against the changes that will soon come into effect.

This plays right into the hands of any rogue government because, thanks to the provisions of this freedom-sapping law, the online dissent can (and will) be quickly hidden from the eyes of the rest of the public. I guess a bunch of dumb Aussies haven't yet figured out that once the law comes into effect, they'll be confined to echo-chambers where they can sound-off all they like but there won't be anyone actually listening.

The real problem is that once we've given up our right to free speech and the right to disseminate that free speech to others, we become powerless to push back against even more draconian, restrictive and rights-robbing laws. Right now in the UK, Australia and a growing number of other "free world" countries, we're facing a watershed moment.

Rights and freedoms are like muscles -- if you don't exercise them you WILL lose them, there's nothing more certain.

If Pommes and Aussies don't get off their fat bums, away from their keyboards and start marching very visibly in the streets to demand their freedoms and privacy be restored then they are completely and utterly buggered for the forseeable future.

It used to be that broadcast TV was considered the opiate of the masses but these days it seems to be "cute cat videos on Facebook" and endless Tiktok video-scrolling that has sapped people of the will to protect themselves from outrageous government over-reach.

Sad days, sad days.

Carpe Diem folks!

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