EmbarrassedHelp

•on: Identity verification on Claude

10 hours ago

Any sort of identity/age verification here is problematic and unacceptable.

•on: VPN ban update for UK households as government loo...

1 day ago

The moment the UK does this, politicians in other Western countries are going to start thinking that its a good idea and attempting to copy the UK.

•on: Canadian Government Plans to Shut Down Debate and ...

5 days ago

For those who do not know, bill C-22 is the Canadian government's attempt to force encryption backdoors and mandatory metadata retention on all online services in Canada.

If you know anyone who uses WhatsApp, Signal, iMessage, and other encrypted apps, those apps will be blocking Canadians. The blocking will either happen imminently, or suddenly at point in the future without warning (because organizations are not allowed to publicly reveal that they have been told to weaken encryption or illegally retain metadata).

•on: Amazon CEO's talks with U.S. officials triggered c...

8 days ago

Unfortunately even if this blocking is only temporary, a precedent has been set.

The government will likely be more willing to target open source models in the future that they deem to be too powerful. A lot of open source AI infrastructure exists within reach of the US government.

consumer451•

8 days ago

I keep imagining what we would be hearing on loop if a Dem administration had done this.

"Typical Dem overreach and regulation! The nanny state!"

"Frontier models are expensive to create! Why should US companies continue to invest in them, if the government won't let them make sales! This is how China wins!"

dannyw•

8 days ago

The Internet will find a way to route around censorship. I’ve already started downloading notable open weight models onto my NAS and will distribute via eg BitTorrents if needed. I’m not in the US, and you can’t ban VPNs overnight.

moffkalast•

7 days ago

I wouldn't be surprised if this isn't some kind of marketing stunt Amazon paid the white house to do on Anthropic's behalf to make the model appear more desirable and it'll be back online in a week or two. It's artificial scarcity tactics 101 to boost value that you see in crypto every day.

b--l•

7 days ago

A huge win for china. No one is going to forget this. Every single developer will remember this weekend and be pissed off. I'm sure it's a huge wakeup call for any dev that was asleep and not bothering with open source models.

10 days ago

Bill C-22 is the Canadian government's attempt to require encryption backdoors and mandatory data retention, for all online services.

The invasive mandatory age verification requires are part of bill C-34, which was just tabled yesterday. Its obviously an unacceptable violate of privacy, but the Liberals are far closer to passing C-22 at the moment.

motohagiography•

10 days ago

my error, i actually thought it was an omnibus. it doesn't change my view, but toward the specific encryption concern, indeed, less relevant. thank you.

10 days ago

> Heck, China, Israel, India, South Korea, and Taiwan all have larger tech industries than Canada and have much stricter internet speech requirements (and in Israel and Taiwan's case are much smaller than Canada population wise).

That's actually not true for most of those countries. None of those countries other than maybe China have laws requiring encryption backdoors.

Suspicionless bulk metadata retention is also illegal in the EU, and no such law existing in many of those other democracies you listed.

ShinyLeftPad•

9 days ago

China and Israel have pretty strict requirements. Korea was recently on the news for something some might say is an "internet speech requirement" (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48406198)

10 days ago

Both the conservatives and the NDP have been fighting against Bill C-22.

0x696C6961•

10 days ago

That's how it's always gone. The people in power push it and the opposition fights it "for the people".

cmrdporcupine•

10 days ago

Conservatives want it amended. NDP wants it killed.

mhurron•

10 days ago

And how much of the conservatives issue with it are because the Liberal party put it forward. They have absolutely been bringing similar bills when they have control of the government.

10 days ago

> It's online and easy to read

That's not true. Most people are not legal experts with extensive expertise in technology, knowledge of how Canadian courts will interpret the legislation, and knowledge of how governments around the world are trying to attack encryption (ex: they do their best to hide and not to explicitly say it in the legislation).

> And let's be real: 99% of the industry already logs everything.

That's your opinion. That's not a real scientific claim, and yet you are using it to justify an unprecedented attack on privacy rights.

Suspicionless metadata retention has been illegal in the European Union since 2014, and it violates the Charter. There is no world in which it is acceptable.

An RCMP witness speaking about the bill during a recent committee meeting literally said the legislation will help them "solve the problem of encryption": https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2026/05/rcmp-confirms-bill-c-22-...

10 days ago

That is a lie. None of those countries other than maybe China have laws requiring encryption backdoors.

Suspicionless bulk metadata retention is also illegal in the EU, and no such law existing in many of those other democracies you listed.

10 days ago

There will be a SECU Committee meeting on C-22 later today, where the committee will be performing a clause by clause review of Bill C-22, and voting on amendments. It may be the final meeting. You can watch it live by clicking the "Watch on ParlVu" button on the meeting notice page: https://www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer/en/45-1/SECU/meetin...

Direct link to the upcoming live ParlVu video: https://parlvu.parl.gc.ca/Harmony/en/PowerBrowser/PowerBrows...

After bill C-22 leaves the SECU Committee, it will be sent to the House of Commons for the third reading and a final vote before being sent to the Senate.

If you are a Canadian citizen, you can also use the following tools to message your MP:

* The Internet Society's tool: https://www.internetsociety.org/our-work/internet-policy/kee...

* OpenMedia's messaging tool: https://action.openmedia.org/page/188754/action/1

* ICLM's messaging tool: https://iclmg.ca/stop-c-22/

You can also email Gary Anandasangaree (gary.anand@parl.gc.ca), Marc Carney (mark.carney@parl.gc.ca), and Sean Fraser (sean.fraser@parl.gc.ca), and tell them that any weakening of encryption or suspicionless retention of metadata is unacceptable.

10 days ago

The SECU Committee meeting is now live, and is set to go until 11:59 p.m. ET.

The livestream of the meeting is available here: https://parlvu.parl.gc.ca/Harmony/en/PowerBrowser/PowerBrows...

10 days ago

Well, the meeting ended early today after a member who supports the bill basically rage quit. Everyone else was trying not to laugh.

It seems possible that C-22 could be delayed in committee long enough to stop it from being passed before the summer recess deadline of June 18.

10 days ago

The Liberal party members of the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security (SECU) are:

* Jean-Yves Duclos: jean-yves.duclos@parl.gc.ca

* Sima Acan: sima.acan@parl.gc.ca

* Marianne Dandurand: marianne.dandurand@parl.gc.ca

* Anthony Housefather: anthony.housefather@parl.gc.ca

* Marcus Powlowski: marcus.powlowski@parl.gc.ca

* Jacques Ramsay: jacques.ramsay@parl.gc.ca

* Amandeep Sodhi: amandeep.sodhi@parl.gc.ca

__turbobrew__•

10 days ago

3 from Ontario and 4 from Quebec. As a western Canada resident it has been real old that we have been steamrolled by the east for the past decade.

10 days ago

It's the tyranny of the majority.

Ontario and Quebec together are like 65% of Canadians. I'm in BC and have made my peace with that. I would imagine people in PEI feel a similar way.

Probably people living in Hope or Quesnel also feel similar about being steamrolled by Metro Vancouver and Victoria.

__turbobrew__•

10 days ago

I get that Quebec and Ontario have 65% of the population, but why do they have 100% of the seats on a committee that shoves surveillance and gun bans down everyone else’s throats?

10 days ago

Not a clue, but if there are only 7 seats then all 10 provinces can't be represented anyway. I highly doubt political opinions about surveillance are aligned with provincial borders.

newsclues•

9 days ago

Because the laurentian elite rule Canada and the liberal party is the political arm of the power corporation

soperj•

10 days ago

The eastern provinces and Quebec are actually over represented. That means there's even less of a chance for the west.

10 days ago

Saskatchewan and Manitoba are also over-represented.

BC, Alberta, and Ontario are under-represented. Ontario, for example, is about 39% of the population of the provinces, but only 36% or so of the seats.

The allocation is an imperfect formula, to be sure. I doubt it makes much of a difference in practice, except as propaganda fuel for foreign influence operations driving Alberta separatism. The degree to which most provinces are under- or over-represented is less than 1%.

badc0ffee•

10 days ago

PEI gets 4 seats in the House of Commons.