Latest news with #VPNs
ITV News
14 hours ago
- Politics
- ITV News
Technology Minister accuses Nigel Farage of being on the side of 'Jimmy Savile' in online safety row
The Technology Minister Peter Kyle has accused Reform leader Nigel Farage of being on the side of "extreme pornographers" and "Jimmy Savile," over his pledge to scrap the Online Safety Act if elected to government. The comments were made while Kyle was defending the act and the recently implemented age verification checks which have come in to force on websites hosting harmful or adult content. Asked about Farage's criticism of the new laws and promise to scrap them should he come in to power, Kyle said: 'I see that Nigel Farage is already saying that he's going to overturn these laws. So you know, we have people out there who are extreme pornographers, peddling hate, peddling violence. Nigel Farage is on their side. 'Make no mistake about it, if people like Jimmy Savile were alive today, he'd be perpetrating his crimes online. And Nigel Farage is saying that he's on their side.' Kyle initially made the comments speaking to Sky News, with Farage branding them disgusting and calling on the minister to apologise. Former Reform Party Chairman Zia Yusuf also expressed outrage, describing Kyle's remarks as 'one of the most outrageous and disgusting things a politician has said in the political arena". He added: 'Talking about Jimmy Savile in that way does nothing other than denigrate the victims of Jimmy Savile.' Despite this, Kyle refused to apologise when pushed to do so in a later interview with ITV News, standing by his earlier comments. "If you're against the Online Safety Act and want to overturn it you are on the side of predators and pedophiles," Kyle insisted. "Nigel Farage is therefore on the side of predators and pedophiles and he needs to be called out for it." "Nigel Farage is therefore on the side of predators and pedophiles," Peter Kyle insisted. Concerns had been raised from both Farage's party and other MPs, as well as the public, that in recent days there has been a large spike in the download of VPNs, services that allow users to bypass age verification checks by pretending they are browsing from another country. Some are concerned rather than protect children, the new laws are too easily avoided and may end up pushing children to darker corners of the internet. Reform UK have also voiced specific objection to what they see as an attack on free speech. On Monday Reform announced their policy would be to scrap the entire act, describing it as a 'dystopian' infringement of free speech. Addressing a press conference at Reform's London headquarters, Zia Yusuf claimed the act did 'absolutely nothing to protect children' but worked to 'suppress freedom of speech' and 'force social media companies to censor anti-government speech". The prime minister denied these laws had anything to do with censoring free speech when questioned about them during a joint press conference with US President Donald Trump. 'We're not censoring anyone," said Starmer. 'We've got some measures which are there to protect children, in particular, from sites like suicide sites.' He added: 'I personally feel very strongly that we should protect our young teenagers, and that's what it usually is, from things like suicide sites. I don't see that as a free speech issue, I see that as child protection.' Under rules that came into effect on July 25, online platforms such as social media sites and search engines must take steps to prevent children accessing harmful content such as pornography or material that encourages suicide. This includes introducing age verification for websites and ensuring algorithms do not work to harm children by pushing such content towards them when online, for example. Failing to comply with the new rules could incur fines of up to £18 million or 10% of a firm's global turnover, whichever is greater. On Tuesday a petition on the government's website to repeal the act stood close to 400,000 signatories and as such will be scheduled for debate by MPs.
The National
15 hours ago
- Politics
- The National
Labour minister claims Nigel Farage 'on Jimmy Savile's side'
Reform UK have reacted with fury after Technology Secretary Peter Kyle made the inflammatory accusation on Tuesday morning in response to their criticism of the Online Safety Act. Farage's party has said it will scrap the legislation if it wins power in Westminster, which was brought in under the Tories and which Labour have staunchly defended. It puts strict new rules on internet companies, including imposing responsibilities on social media sites and search engines to ensure young people are not accessing harmful content like pornography or material that encourages suicide. But it is feared that it will drive young people into even darker corners of the internet and interest in tools to get around restrictions, such as virtual private networks (VPNs), has soared. Speaking to Sky News on Tuesday, Kyle said that children have been living in a 'wild west' and labelled the new law 'a big step forward'. (Image: PA) He added: 'I see that Nigel Farage is already saying that he's going to overturn these laws. So you know, we have people out there who are extreme pornographers, peddling hate, peddling violence. Nigel Farage is on their side. 'Make no mistake about it, if people like Jimmy Savile were alive today, he'd be perpetrating his crimes online. And Nigel Farage is saying that he's on their side.' Asked to clarify his comments, Kyle said: 'Nigel Farage is on the side of turning the clock back to the time when strange adults, strangers can get in touch via messaging apps with children.' READ MORE: Donald Trump responds to John Swinney's indyref2 plan Farage reacted on X by calling Kyle's remarks 'disgusting' and said 'he should do the right thing and apologise'. Kyle then doubled down on his comments, and said that 'if you want to overturn the Online Safety Act you are on the side of predators. It is as simple as that.' Yusuf claimed that Kyle's (below) remarks showed 'how deeply unserious' the Government was about child safety, adding: 'Talking about Jimmy Savile in that way does nothing other than denigrate the victims of Jimmy Savile.' He told Sky News that the comments are 'one of the most outrageous and disgusting things a politician has said in the political arena that I can remember. And that's quite a high bar, frankly.' Keir Starmer jumped to defend the legislation from its critics when he met Donald Trump on Monday, telling reporters 'We're not censoring anyone'. 'We've got some measures which are there to protect children, in particular, from sites like suicide sites.' He added: 'I personally feel very strongly that we should protect our young teenagers, and that's what it usually is, from things like suicide sites. I don't see that as a free speech issue, I see that as child protection.'
Engadget
18 hours ago
- Engadget
VPNs are booming in the UK after age restriction laws, but free options carry big risks
The United Kingdom's Online Safety Act took effect on July 25th. Among other provisions, the new law makes websites responsible for protecting UK children from content deemed harmful, like pornography or the promotion of eating disorders. This has resulted in many of the most-used websites, including Pornhub, X and Reddit, either putting up or planning to put up age verification barriers to restrict access by minors. Age-restricting laws put broadly popular websites in a difficult position. Sites like Reddit that rely on user-generated content have no good way of making sure nobody under 18 ever sees restricted material anywhere on the platform, so it's usually simpler to just ban minors altogether. But this creates a knock-on problem: underage users relying on unvetted free virtual private networks (VPNs) to get back on their favorite platforms. UK residents are using VPNs to change their apparent locations to other countries and circumvent the Online Safety Act. In the few days since the law went into force, five of the 10 most-downloaded free apps in the UK have been VPNs. We like two of the five, Proton VPN and NordVPN, but NordVPN does not have a free plan — just a seven-day free trial, after which you have to pay. The other three are unvetted, untested and suspiciously generic (VPN Super Unlimited Proxy, and Unlimited VPN Proxy). When you use a VPN, all your web traffic goes through one of the VPN's servers before moving on to its ultimate destination. Every time you connect, you're trusting the VPN not to abuse its access to your information, and some VPNs unfortunately abuse that trust. A free VPN is generally safe if it's supported by paid subscriptions, like Proton is. If there is no paid tier, or the free tier comes with no restrictions, you have to ask yourself where the money is coming from. The saying that "if the product is free, then the real product is you" holds true here. For example, Hola VPN admits in its terms of service that its sister company Bright Data can sell free users' residential IPs as proxy servers, and Hotspot Shield was the subject of an FTC complaint in 2017 that charged it with providing personally identifiable information to advertisers. And one of the services on the UK's top 10 list, has no address on its website and a frighteningly sparse privacy policy. Malware is the other significant risk. A 2016 study analyzed 283 Android apps with VPN capability, and found malware in 38% of them. Nor has the threat diminished in the 10 years since — just this year, threat analysts at CYFIRMA reported on a free VPN shared on GitHub being used as a malware vector. In the end, a fully free VPN has no real reason to protect you or your rights, and every incentive to milk you for profit. Whatever you choose to do with a VPN, make sure you're picking one that will keep you save without exploiting you. Green flags include a clear pricing structure, audits from independent firms in the last three years, a specific physical location on the VPN's website and a thorough privacy policy. Some trustworthy free VPNs include the aforementioned Proton VPN, plus TunnelBear and Windscribe. If you buy something through a link in this article, we may earn commission.
Epoch Times
a day ago
- Business
- Epoch Times
Bipartisan Senators Urge Apple, Google to Remove China-Owned VPN Apps
A bipartisan group of senators has called on Apple and Google to remove China-owned virtual private networks, or VPNs, from their app stores, warning that these apps pose a threat to U.S. national security due to their ties to China's military. Sens. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), both serving on the Armed Services Committee, sent a letter dated July 24 to Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai. The lawmakers expressed concern that some Chinese VPN apps are linked to Qihoo 360, a Chinese cybersecurity company that was added to the Commerce Department's economic blacklist for supporting the procurement of items for use by the Chinese military.
The National
2 days ago
- Business
- The National
VPN use surges in UK as Ofcom's new age verification rules kick in
Sites offering adult content, including popular social media apps like X/Twitter, Reddit and TikTok, have introduced 'age assurance' systems to comply with new rules brought in by the Online Safety Act. Ofcom, the UK's independent media regulator, set out the new rules which now make online and social media companies legally responsible for keeping children and young people safe online. The regulator said the rules change aims to stop children from accessing 'harmful or inappropriate' content, including pornography and material that relates to self-harm, eating disorders or suicide. READ MORE: 'The welcome he deserves': TikToker goes viral praising National's Trump front page Some of the new age assurance measures which are being implemented by pornography providers, which are supported by Ofcom, include the use of facial age estimation, which assesses a person's likely age through a live photo or video. Other measures include checking a person's age via their credit card provider, bank or mobile phone network operator; photo ID matching, where a passport or similar ID is checked against a selfie; or a 'digital identity wallet' that contains proof of age. However, since the legislation came into effect on Friday, the usage of Virtual Private Networks (VPN) have soared as people attempt to evade the new rules. VPNs are commonly used by citizens in authoritarian regimes to get around internet censorship as they re-route a smartphone or a computer's internet traffic to another country, bypassing local network providers. Now, apps in the UK that offer VPNs have made up half of the top 10 most popular free apps on the UK's App Store for iOS this weekend, according to Apple's rankings. Proton VPN overtook ChatGPT to become the top free app in the UK as the Swiss-based company said it had seen a more than 1800% increase in daily sign-ups from UK-based users since Friday. 'We would normally associate these large spikes in sign-ups with major civil unrest,' Proton said. 'This clearly shows that adults are concerned about the impact universal age verification laws will have on their privacy.' Nord, another global leader that provides VPNs, said there had been a 1000 per cent increase in UK purchases of VPN subscriptions since the new rules kicked in. Google Trends has also shown there has been a significant increase in search requests about VPNs in the UK this weekend, with up to 10 times more people searching for them during peak times. Opposition to the new rules has grown in recent days, with a petition submitted through the UK parliament website attracting more than 280,000 signatures. The petition demands that the Online Safety Act be retracted, with a surge of signatures being added to the document in the past week. Ofcom said on Sunday that age checks were not a 'silver bullet' but added: 'Until now, kids could easily stumble across porn and other online content that's harmful to them without even looking for it. Age checks will help prevent that. 'We're now assessing compliance to make sure platforms have them in place, and companies that fall short should expect to face enforcement action.'
