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Apple Threatens to Pull FaceTime and iMessage in the UK Over Proposed Surveillance Law Changes
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Sortof. In this specific case FaceTime continues to work in China in its encrypted fashion so long as your calls stay within China. Calling using FaceTime outside of China from within does not seem to work well. To me this says that Apple didn't change its technologies but China is restricting it on the back end. I'd be very surprised if they were actually monitoring FaceTime calls as that would be a very expensive proposition.
you couldn't be more wrong, and if you knew which UK "country" i am in you'd realise just how wrong you are.
Look, sometimes government has a tendency to bully, gaslighting people with "well, the people elected us, they want us to do this!"
Just because people voted for you to change the healthcare system doesn't give you license to be a douchebag. They didn't vote for douchebaggery.
the problem is, that argument only works when you're in your first term.
when it comes round to the next election and the "public" vote you back in, you can't then complain about how they act because you saw and then chose them again.
blame the government the first time round, second time round the blame is solely on the voters.
but the UK is so skewed to the south east that vast parts of the UK are simply not represented in the way they should be.
The awful party running the UK will be gone soon, replaced by the policy-free alternative who stand for precisely nothing. As depressing as it is, we have to vote for a pathetic party because at least they aren't essentially evil, with a proven track record of incompetence.
Well, 95% of the newspapers in the UK are right leaning...
That's true. Furthermore, we can be rid if them without the embarrassing debacle seen across the Atlantic.
Terrible as this Conservative government is, I actually think New Labour were even worse. Their authoritarian streak was legendary, with a queue of reactionary home secretaries - Jack Straw, David Blunkett, John Reid, among them - each seeking to outdo the last.
Seeking to extend detention without charge to 90 days. Ramping up mass surveillance. Increasing stop and search. Countless attempts to introduce ID cards. Legislation that encroached on freedom of expression and freedom of movement. Blair even floated the idea of watering down the Human Rights Act. Ugh.
I don't see a Starmer Labour government being any better. If anything, there are worrying signs it could be even more illiberal. I'm starting to think that the Greens and possibly the Lib Dems are the only parties we could rely on to defend civil liberties in this country.
There are three possible outcomes here:
1. The UK ends the program due to internal political pressure.
2. They go ahead with it, allowing Apple, Meta and others pull services, in efforts to politicize their strong customer base, which will likely result in SMS and other unencrypted platforms gaining prominence.
3. They go ahead and Apple and Meta capitulate.
My guess is #1 is most likely. While the world has accepted many forms of surveillance in the name of security and safety, such as London being so congested with cameras that they can literally follow you from the time you leave your house; peoples around the world have come to appreciate the privacy that encryption brings to their daily lives.
England isn’t China. People won’t put up with it.
1. The UK ends the program due to internal political pressure.
2. They go ahead with it, allowing Apple, Meta and others pull services, in efforts to politicize their strong customer base, which will likely result in SMS and other unencrypted platforms gaining prominence.
3. They go ahead and Apple and Meta capitulate.
My guess is #1 is most likely. While the world has accepted many forms of surveillance in the name of security and safety, such as London being so congested with cameras that they can literally follow you from the time you leave your house; peoples around the world have come to appreciate the privacy that encryption brings to their daily lives.
England isn’t China. People won’t put up with it.
That first chart is very misleading to say the least and i would say it should be ignored. The second is more nuanced and credible. The figure that's missing is how many voters read any of these to get their news.
China has numerous laws with regards to surveillance. I have no doubt Apple have made their products compliant with China's law just so they can sell their products to the billions of people in China thus I fail to understand Apple's stance on the UK's IPA.
Orwell's home country seems really determined to make his fictional dystopian governments into reality, huh? 
Honestly given your arguing meaningless specifics whilst ignoring the bigger picture throughout this thread and griping in general I don’t think you’re a Tory, I think you’re a post 2010 libdem which might actually be worse.
No it isn't but if Apple complied with China's surveillance laws so they could sell their products in China, Apple can do the same for other countries as well.
You are in the minority. WhatsApp is easily the most popular messaging app in Europe with only about 30% of people in the UK saying they use it regularly.
Stats: https://www.statista.com/forecasts/1328650/imessage-messengers-brand-profile-in-the-uk
HelpCenter – MessengerPeople HelpCenter
www.messengerpeople.com
Careful now, you’re getting close to the line on breaking forum rules regarding making personal insults
But this is about the UK. They’re not part of the EU.
iOS market share doesn’t matter. You can install WhatsApp on an iPhone and what’s what people use.
Yes, WhatsApp would also be affected but what people are saying is that the threat to pull iMessage isn’t that impactful because only a minority of people in the UK use it regularly.