this post was submitted on 24 Sep 2023
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Privacy
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I would be more interested in why the UK based Matrix/Element is so conspicuously quiet lately about the UK Online Safety Bill. They used to be more outspoken about it.
Because the uk government conceded that there is no current technology to scan communications without compromising encryption. And have relinquished forcing companies from adding backdoors "for now" without actually removing this provision for the law. Meaning they are leaving it to the regulator "ofcom" or future governments to decide when to request compromising encryption
and that's why even Signal and WhatsApp who threatened pulling out of the UK, haven't issued any recent statement after the adoption of this law
This "let's just not enforce it" part combined with the silence by the main intermediatories like Element is exactly what makes it seem like there has been some backroom deal no one wants to openly talk about.
Did they though?
Yes, as I said, they used to be more outspoken. But suspicious silence despite the bill actually having passed now.
... what do you want them to say? please remove your tinfoil hat lmao
They had months to prepare for this, surely some sort of press announcement would not be too much to ask?
It's not "tinfoil hat" to expect some sort of response, and the lack of it is strange given they had all these big announcements this week. For example there was previously some talk about moving their headquarters to Luxemburg as a response to this (and to avoid the worst impacts of this bill).
The last public comment I could find from them was this month on 8/7 on Element's Mastodon, and it seems they had other comments as well around that time. Which is pretty recent
The bill was passed less than a week ago and hasn't come into effect yet. I have no doubt that the folks at Matrix/Element will do what they need to do. We haven't seen them act in a concerning way before, so I don't think a delayed response is a sign of a red flag. It's quite possible they want to have things done on their end before announcing anything. Not to mention they clearly wanted to message about the Matrix 2.0 features, and bringing up the Online Safety bill would muddy that message
Where did they mention moving to Luxemburg?
Also, see mtchristo's response
If I remember correctly on of the founders speculated about that in a Hackernews thread.
I don't think this is tinfoil hat. This is a real world law imposed by the government of the country where Matrix is primarily developed.
It's an other thing that eventually they decided they won't require compromising encryption, but this is not tinfoil hat.
Maybe they dont give a fuck because they arent beholdent to such silly things?