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Comment by 13415 | Hacker News Reader

How is this law supposed to work with text encryption? Write text, encrypt, copy to clipboard, paste into chat app? Will such encryption applications be prohibited? That seems unenforcable, these apps are everywhere, I've even written one with symmetric encryption myself.

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It doesn’t. You cannot legislate math. You cannot change the laws of physics either. These so called “laws” will do absolutely nothing to stop or even deter an committed criminal from so much as sharing child porn. It’s completely unenforceable. Public key encryption is even more powerful than symmetric encryption because it gives everyone the ability to establish a shared secret completely out in the open, effectively securing communications over insecure networks. Complete strangers without ever having to meet in person can send secret messages in a manner they can guarantee no one else can read and no one else could forge.

Of course you can legislate math. For example, the only law that matters in Australia is the law of Australia[0].

[0] https://www.newscientist.com/article/2140747-laws-of-mathema...

Make it illegal to have them on "app stores" and they will be inaccessible to 95% of the plebs. The remaining who use free software are those who care about privacy and pedos.

Governments frequently ban encryption for private citizens to "prevent them from sharing child porn".

It’s completely uneffective.

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