Politics U.K. Parliament says banning Tor is unacceptable and impossible

Here's some good news for once. I'm tired of reading about scams and such. One interesting tidbit is that Tor is not popular among pedos because it's not fast enough.

Just months after U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron said he wants to ban encryption and online anonymity, the country's parliament today released a briefing saying that the such an act is neither acceptable nor technically feasible.

The briefing, issued by the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, specifically referenced the Tor anonymity network and its notorious ability to slide right around such censorship schemes.

It's important to note that briefings from the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology are not legally binding nor are they necessarily indicative of parliament's attitudes as a whole. However, the office is an important part of parliament and serves to give independent analysis of public policy issues for politicians. Crucially, this briefing does explicitly state that there is "widespread agreement" banning Tor is not acceptable policy nor is it feasible technologically. 

Tor has about 100,000 users at any given moment within the United Kingdom.

"There is widespread agreement that banning online anonymity systems altogether is not seen as an acceptable policy option in the U.K.," the briefing explained. "Even if it were, there would be technical challenges."

The briefing cites Tor's ongoing battle with Chinese censorship and describes "secret entrance nodes to the Tor Network, called 'bridges', which are very difficult to block." 

In 2012, U.K. police said the Tor anonymity service was used by "many" pedophiles in order to trade child abuse images. In the same parliamentary briefing, those police have changed their tunes significantly.

Tor "plays only a minor role in the online viewing and distribution of indecent images of children," according to the briefing, quoting the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command (CEOP) of the U.K. National Crime Agency.

They drove home the assertion by saying that while 1,624 domains were found to have child abuse material on the open Web, just 36 were found on the Dark Net--about 2 percent.

"Tor is less popular among offenders because it decreases the speed at which images can be downloaded," according to British police.

http://www.dailydot.com/politics/uk-briefing-tor-child-abuse-minor-role/


Comments


[23 Points] Hayk_Vosgi:

I fully support the ban on encryption. To kick this initiative off, I suggest the UK's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the SIS, being the biggest users of encryption, lead by example.


[8 Points] Vendor_BBMC:

Davis Cameron is planning to make it illegal to whisper


[3 Points] throwaway:

Just curious: Any news on Russia's intention to ban tor?


[-47 Points] Nigro_McKunt:

No one cares unless it's about US, bitch