
In the UK, running a blog over HTTPS is “terrorism”, says Scotland Yard - tekacs
https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/blog/2016/10/uk-running-blog-https-now-act-terrorism-says-scotland-yard/
======
turblety
From: [http://news.met.police.uk/news/man-charged-with-terror-
offen...](http://news.met.police.uk/news/man-charged-with-terror-
offences-189511)

Count 1: "Membership of a proscribed organisation. On or before 22 September
2016 Samata Ullah belonged or professed to belong to a proscribed organisation
namely ISIS (Daesh). Contrary to section 11 Terrorism Act 2000."

Count 2: "...he knew that a person receiving it intended to use the skills in
which he is being instructed or trained for or in connection with the
commission or preparation of acts of terrorism...."

Count 3: "...with the intention of assisting another or others to commit acts
of terrorism, engaged in conduct in preparation for giving effect to his
intention namely, by researching an encryption programme..."

It goes on like this. It appears that he wasn't just running a blog informing
people of how to secure their privacy but was intentionally trying to help
terrorists. I for one am very concerned about the UK's government pushing us
more towards a "North-Korean-like" run country, however I don't see anything
too unsettling about this. It seems clear that there was more to this than him
just running an encrypted blog that made this guy a suspect. Everything
references the fact he was specifically trying to help terrorists. That is
presumably what this court case will be about, not him just running a private
blog teaching encryption to the general public.

~~~
stevetrewick
Indeed. The Terrorism Act 2006 [0] defines the offence given in count 3 (just
to pick one) thusly ...

> _A person commits an offence if, with the intention of—

(a)committing acts of terrorism, or

(b)assisting another to commit such acts,

he engages in any conduct in preparation for giving effect to his intention._

That the conduct happened to be encryption is basically irrelevant. Had he
been purchasing giant shrimp in order to further some bizarre terror plan then
that would be the exact same offence. The author of TFA would be well advised
to familiarise himself with UK terror legislation before making such sweeping
and incorrect generalisations. It's the _intent_ that is the offence, not the
conduct.

Which is not to say that the UK doesn't have a frighteningly totalitarian
attitude to crypto, just that this isn't a good example of it in action.

[0]
[http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/11/section/5](http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/11/section/5)

Edit: add link

~~~
belorn
Sound similar to case in Sweden where one person was found guilty of
preparation to commit an act of terrorism by first reading documents on how to
construct a bomb and then going out and buying ingredients.

The only major issue I have with it is that reading and researching (i,e,
searching the web) is now recorded and used as key evidence, and the days
where one could go to the library and read in secrecy is gone. That used to be
a rather sacred activity, and all the reasons for why such spying is ripe for
abuse seems to have been forgotten.

------
maze-le
This is quite unsettling: "Those six acts include researching encryption,
developing an 'encrypted version' of his blog, and instructing others how to
use encryption.".

If this is everything you need to be a 'terrorist', I am at least guilty on 3
accounts. I'd bet most of you here are too.

The article concludes: "According to Scotland Yard, learning and teaching
mathematics is apparently terrorism."

~~~
CommanderData
The things the government has vocally advocated over the last 5 years are
frightening the developer community here.

As a result hosting services outside of the UK are more appealing and talk of
registering companies abroad are increasing.

It's sad because every developer I know wants to do the normal thing but
draconian news and laws will make people look elsewhere. Negatively affecting
the community and most definitely harming it in the long run. The idea of a
reduced or harmed dev community in the UK is tragic.

------
OliPicard
The blog post is incredibly biased. The police have posted there proceedings
and it seems the individual had done alot more than run a blog. Maybe PIA
should do some more research before slamming the keyboard with utter rubbish.

------
zerognowl
I'm confused: [https://www.gchq.gov.uk/](https://www.gchq.gov.uk/)

------
ignasl
"Trust me I'm lying" is a great book about that kind of "blogging". Nice click
bait though.

