Recently weāve seen sweeping attempts to censor the internet. The UKās āOnline Safety Actā imposes sweeping restrictions on speech and expression. Itās disguised a child safety measure, but its true purpose is (avowedly!) intentional control over āservices that have a significant influence over public discourseā. And similar trends threaten the US, especially as lawmakers race to more aggressively categorize more speech as broadly harmful.
A common response to these restrictions has been to dismiss them as unenforceable: thatās not how the internet works, governments are foolish for thinking they can do this, and you can just use a VPN to get around crude attempts at content blocking.
But this ājust use a workaroundā dismissal is a dangerous, reductive mistake. Even if you can easily defeat an attempt to impose a restriction right now, you canāt take that for granted.
Dismissing technical restrictions as unenforceable
There is a tendency, especially among technically competent people, to use the ability to work around a requirement as an excuse to avoid dealing with it. When there is a political push to enforce a particular pattern of behavior ā discourage or ban something, or make something socially unacceptable ā there is an instinct for clever people with workarounds to respond with āyou can just use my workaroundā.
I see this a lot, in a lot of different forms:
- āGeographic restrictions donāt matter, just use a VPN.ā
- āMedia preservation by the industry doesnāt matter, just use pirated copies.ā
- āThe application removing this feature doesnāt matter, just use this tool to do it for you.ā
- āDonāt pay for this feature, you can just do it yourself for free.1ā
- āItās āinevitableā that people will use their technology as they please regardless of the EULA.ā
- āIssues with digital ownership? Doesnāt affect me, I just pirate.ā