The creation of sexually explicit deepfake content is likely to become a criminal offense in England and Wales as concern grows over the use of artificial intelligence to exploit and harass women.
Big deal. /s Everything is a crime in England. Writing this comment is probably even a crime in England. I sure as hell don't have a license to use the computer monitor I'm viewing this on.
I posted this from a vpn that probably uses encryption at some point along the network path. Using encryption is a crime in England (unless they backpedaled on that already). Also, tea is stupid. Please air strike within 24 hours or at your earliest convenience.
They're referencing the UK "Online Safety Bill" passed last year, which was very scary when it was just an idea that hadn't been written yet.
But when it finally was written and we got to see the actual content of the bill — it basically requires certain companies to use "accredited technology" to detect and block certain categories of illegal content (especially CSAM and foreign election propaganda).
All the major platforms are already taking extensive steps to block illegal content and there's a good chance they will be happy to use whatever "technology" is eventually "accredited".
A lot rides on the specifics of the "technology" which hasn't been clearly defined - but it certainly is not a ban on encryption.
Most likely reports of dumb shit conservative politicians have called for, wanting access to messaging. You can find the exact same proposals in the US, European Parliament, individual EU countries, and a load of other places.
Dumb, sure, but a proposal that always goes nowhere isn't a law, and it's certainly not England or even UK-specific.
The only weird thing about TV licence is the name. It's not really a license at all, it's just paying for a service you use.
If you watch live TV, you pay towards the broadcasting of it, plus the running of the BBC, which is ad-free in the UK.
The argument being that if it came from direct government funding, the government would have a much greater degree of control over the main national news source, which would likely be a worse solution. As would filling the BBC up with ads and cutting expensive content like proper news and excellent documentaries.
Calling it a license kind of implies you need to apply for a card or a document to watch TV, which isn't the case.
The UK is far from the only country that has publicly-funded television that you legally have to pay for to use.