[HacktionLab] Police crackdown on free speech

[Ben Green]

It always made sense to be concerned, I wasn't belittling that in any 
way. It's the selling of "Free Speech", which is a term the right like 
to bandy about whilst trying to destroy it, that I thought was 
inappropriate. I felt that the issue with the governments treatment of 
Palestine Action fell in to a different category, but that was besides 
your point.

Yes activists, including me, aren't as careful as they should be with 
communication channels.

Reddit, Discord or Bluesky are not good platforms to use for sure. 
There's more secure, more people led platforms that can be used but 
there's reason's they aren't popular, which have nothing to do with how 
logic or reason. The big platforms are intentionally sticky, addictive. 
We've never come up with a good way to counter that. Getting people to 
be rational and reasonable is not going to be the way.

I think people will come to tech activists when they need to have 
private communication. The trouble I had last time was that I had 
nothing to present. There requirements were something like this:

  * A way to communicate which a group of people remote from each other can:
      o start up easily
      o have a few people easily join
      o be completely destroy afterwards


It still seems to me like this would be a good service to offer, given 
the rise of the populist right. There's problems here too though, people 
communicating on the other end could have been compromised. It would 
need to be launched quickly, quickly joined and only to be assumed legit 
for a very limited time. You'd hope to access it via a non-persistent OS 
too.

I think we need to have a need expressed to us, whilst giving sound 
advice on existing service when we can, hence Tech Tools for Activists. 
Perhaps we really do need an update. I've not looked at it in a while.


Cheers,

Beneration Z

On 10/7/25 22:47, ben wrote:
> Hey Ben,
>
> I think you make good point about the Palestine Action issue, in 
> particular, and the related article.
>
> My concern is not just about the brazen proscription of Palestine 
> Action, but also stuff like the repercussions of the Online Safety Act 
> (people now being asked for an ID or face scan in order to access 
> websites) and the actions of Trump in the US (with similar movements 
> rising in popularity in the UK also).
>
> As a result of all of these things (and more) I am personally am 
> feeling very concerned about the future of the open web.
>
> And while people might not feel concerned, I think it is concerned 
> that political activists are currently still using platforms like 
> Reddit, Discord or Bluesky for their online communications.  All three 
> of those platforms are now doing ID/face scan checks to block off 
> certain content that is being shared.
>
> I'm also concerned that bad information will lead people towards using 
> the wrong tools to protect their privacy. I myself am unsure about 
> which tools are okay and which aren't.
>
> I dunno. Am I making more sense with my concerns now?
>
> In solidarity,
> Ben X
>
>
>
>
> Sent with Proton Mail <https://proton.me/mail/home> secure email.
>
> On Sunday, 5 October 2025 at 22:18, Ben Green 
> <ben at bristolwireless.net> wrote:
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> I believe this has nothing to do with Free Speech which as the 
>> article claims. It's poor journalism to pull the events in that 
>> category I think. Right to protest, right to gather peaceably are the 
>> more visible issues. The problem is here that Palestine Action are a 
>> proscribed organisation. Once an organisation is proscribed, they 
>> cannot legally be promoted. It seems like a good idea to have certain 
>> groups proscribed, given the paradox of tolerance.
>>
>> We then come to the underlying problem that there's no substantial 
>> justification for the proscription of Palestine Action. That's the 
>> thing we should be taking on I believe. The other groups proscribed 
>> in July 2025 were the ultranationalist Russian Imperial Movement and 
>> white supremacist Maniacs Murder Cult, strange company for some 
>> people with red paint and some caring elders. As I mentioned at 
>> lunch, this seems particularly stark now the UN has confirmed it 
>> considered Israel actively genocidal. Does anyone know what measures 
>> are being taken to deal with this?
>>
>> I think, well know for sure really, if there's a real problem with 
>> activist group communication there's plenty of people who'll tell 
>> me/us, we've had and publicised them. I feel we're OK on that point.
>>
>> I like Mark's suggestions. With regard to the TOR links: Do we have 
>> any kind of gateway that could take an HTTPS site and pipe to within TOR?
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Ben
>>
>> On 10/5/25 19:24, ben wrote:
>>> *Maybe folks can chime in on the list with their thoughts?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Sent from Proton Mail <https://proton.me/mail/home> for Android.
>>>
>>>
>>> -------- Original Message --------
>>> On Sunday, 10/05/25 at 19:20 ben <benxxxx at protonmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>     Hi all,
>>>
>>>     Thanks for a great weekend with much beautiful food for thought
>>>     and food for eating.
>>>
>>>     During brunch I realised there was a topic I forgot to add that
>>>     I thought was important to talk about.
>>>
>>>     In response to crack downs on free speech in the UK (e.g.
>>>     https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uk-police-get-new-powers-after-latest-pro-palestinian-protest-2025-10-05/
>>>     ), the need for alternative secure media channels is gonna be
>>>     more vital than ever.
>>>
>>>     A refresh on the current best (and preferably accessible)
>>>     practices for doing this would be good.
>>>
>>>     Making folks can chime on on the list with their thoughts.
>>>
>>>     Cheers,
>>>     Ben X
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> HacktionLab mailing list
>>> HacktionLab at lists.aktivix.org
>>> https://lists.aktivix.org/mailman/listinfo/hacktionlab
>
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