The Hated One

The United Kingdom Is a Dystopian Shithole

Added 2025-03-02 14:54:26 +0000 UTC

The United Kingdom is crumbling socially, economically as well as politically. British citizens are slowly waking up to the fact that their country’s economy doesn’t mean much without London and they are rightfully angry at the incompetence of their political leadership that lead them to this point. [0, 1]

This has been covered ad nauseam by fellow YouTubers from the UK and I am not going to beat the dead horse. [2]

Instead, I am going to take a chainsaw to it and show you the disgusting state of rot it’s in from the inside, by shining the light on the UK government’s authoritarian surveillance state.

What the British government is doing is by far worse than in any other democracy in the world and it’s in fact worse than in many authoritarian regimes such as China or Russia. Trust me, I am not being hyperbolic here.

So let’s begin our dive into this boring dystopia we are living in. And don’t worry, as bad things are getting, I am going to propose an array of solutions you and anyone in the world can and should do. This is not just about the UK in the end.

Apple demand

This story begins like this – some time in January 2025, the UK government sent a secret order to Apple to build a covert backdoor access to all encrypted content of iCloud backups. It was covert, because Apple would not be allowed to inform their users that such a backdoor was built in the UK. For Apple users, everything would seem as normal. For the UK government, everything would be accessible in plain text. [3]

By default, iCloud backups offer encryption that the UK government can already access – they can simply tell Apple to hand over information Apple can unlock and the company has to comply. [4]

But, Apple offers an optional feature called Advanced Data Protection which when enabled turns on end-to-end encryption for almost all of the data in iCloud backups – including their messages, photos and other app data. This feature is enforced with a user’s encryption key, which Apple cannot access and hence cannot hand over this data even if the government requested it. [5]

Now the question we must ask – how could Apple possibly comply with a request to break their own encryption that’s supposed to be unbreakable? Well, breaking the encryption is actually mathematically impossible. Only quantum computing built at some point in a distant future will be able to break our modern cryptography. [6, 7]

So breaking it today where it’s meaningful for the government is out of the question. And the UK government knows this.

There is only one thing Apple can do. As a software developer, Apple can create a new version of iCloud that would secretly access user data before it’s encrypted with a user’s key and upload the data to Apple’s servers without end-to-end encryption. Apple could issue this new version as a software update that unwitting Apple users would install without realizing what’s in it. Apple could theoretically do this in a way no user would ever notice. Users could still see the Advanced Data Protection is there, but it would no longer function the same way even when toggled on.

No precedence

If you think this is similar to any other government request in other countries, it’s not. Here’s why. Welcome to WatchMojo, and here’s top 10 reasons why UK’s secret order is unprecedented by every metric.

Reason #10: UK’s secret order is targeted at all Apple users globally, not just UK users. This is the part that absolutely shocks everybody – no government has so far requested a global backdoor access. Apple gave China access to their iCloud data also, but they did it only for Chinese users and Apple built data centers in China to comply with this request. [8]

UK doesn’t want Apple to build data centers in the country and give the government the keys to the data. UK authorities want Apple to hand over user data on any user anywhere in the world, whether or not they are a UK citizen. Whether it’s Jeff Bezos, an accountant from Slovenia or a dentist from Ohio, the Brits want it all. I want to reiterate this – not even China had the balls to go this far with their request from Apple.

Reason #9: Apple is forced to comply with the UK’s request even if it wins the appeal. By UK’s law, Apple can appeal to a judge, but they cannot delay complying with the request during the appeal process even if the judge rules in Apple’s favor. In the US, where Apple fought the FBI’s request to build an iPhone backdoor, Apple wasn’t forced to comply before a judge’s decision. [9, 10]

Reason #8: The UK law forbids Apple from disclosing they have received such a request from the UK. In pretty much any other country, Apple can publicly share information about orders it receives. That’s what they have the transparency report for. In the Apple v. FBI case in the US, Apple made a publicity stunt about FBI’s backdoor request. Tim Cook wouldn’t shut up about how Apple is a privacy company and they made a commercial campaign out of it for years to come. [11, 12]

If Apple says anything about the UK order, people could face prison time. [13]

Reason #7: I’ve… actually ran out of reasons. Is this gonna be enough for my WatchMojo.com internship? I need the money. YouTube is destroying my channel. I need more patrons.

Contrast

This is where I want to paint a contrast about something very important here. This order in the UK is part of a 10-year-long development that I’ve been closely following and covering on my channel and on my Patreon podcast. This order is a mere culmination of the UK’s government effort to build the “world-leading” surveillance state. [14]

I know this because anytime I cover these hot topics, I don’t just immediately turn on a mic and talk out of my ass. I actually conduct research, read sources and analyze.

So I know that when Apple decided to remove Advanced Data Protection from the UK, that wasn’t Apple selling out to the UK government. That was Apple being literally forced by a draconian order under threats of severe legal punishment. [15]

And as much as I have criticized Apple for not being a privacy company as they falsely claim to be, I am not going to criticize Apple for not trying to break the law. [16]

But when I turned on Mutahar’s video on this, from the SomeOrdinaryGamers channel, I was frustrated. He’s definitely a good person, but boy is he lazy.

No, Apple didn’t sell out your privacy to the UK government. They literally had no other choice. If you just read a few articles on this, you would immediately realize that Apple has always been opposed to this and this time wasn’t even allowed to put up a defense. This is not Apple selling out. This is how authoritarian the UK government has become. That’s the headline.

By the time my video gets out, it will not be successful. It takes time for me to do my research and write careful scripts, provide sources and fact-check everything. All of this takes days of work. Comparing his metrics with mine, I see how much more profitable it is to just spew out content daily. It’s always quantity over quality with YouTube. I can’t upload every day and still do the same research. I had to completely redo the script for this video because of how this story developed over the weekend. And YouTube is punishing me for this. So if you want me to continue my research, join my Patreon and become a paid member. You will get early access and exclusive content in return for your support.

In his video, Muthar goes on to suggest self-hosting as a solution to this. I will get to my solutions later, but self-hosting is not the silver bullet as people present it to be. You are not going to compete with multi-million-dollar security research at Apple, Google, Signal, Proton or others. Your self-hosted security will always be worse. That’s especially not the solution for people in the UK who are literally forced by law to give out keys to their encrypted data. If you are in a country with such totalitarian surveillance laws, hosting your own data is actually worse for you.

Surveillance state

Before I talk about the solutions though, I need to really get you up to speed with how bad things are with surveillance totalitarianism. I noticed that anytime I make a video on government surveillance, especially about the UK, my video gets demonetized and/or shadowbanned. So share this with others because it’s not likely the algorithm will bring it to them.

For the past 25 years The UK government has been trying to build the most advanced surveillance state in the world. To justify it, they’ve actively campaigned against encryption for protecting child abusers and terrorists. It’s always those two for some reason. [14]

In that campaign, UK made it illegal to refuse to give the police or the government keys to unlock your encrypted data. Merely refusing to give them your keys will land you a 3-year prison sentence even if you haven’t done anything illegal. [18, 19]

When the Snowden leaks were being reported on around the world, in the UK, the government doubled down on their surveillance programs. UK journalists were ordered to destroy all evidence handed to them by Snowden and the government prepared the new bill to legalize and vastly expand their surveillance powers. [20, 21]

The secret order to Apple is actually based on that law. It is called the Investigatory Powers Act and it is so totalitarian it’s dubbed the Snoopers Charter. [22, 23]

The Investigatory Powers Act vastly expanded the surveillance powers of the British state. Far beyond anything remotely acceptable in any other country, US included. UK government gave itself the authority to remotely hack any computer, network, phone, server or any other device. They can legally install keyloggers, monitor user activity or download any data from the user device. The law expanded this hacking in bulk – it no longer required specific targets. Instead, the government can identify any region where they think a crime could occur and conduct large scale hacking operation to sweep up everyone’s data. By law, the government can target any communication service provider, which include everyone from an ISP, through a telecom company to a messaging app. The data includes all of your content, meatada, browser history and identifiable information. And the UK authorities can do this in real time, not just passively.

The Investigatory Powers Act didn’t just legalize mass surveillance by the British Intelligence. It expanded those powers to dozens of government agencies – not just law enforcement but civil ones too. All local, state and military police forces are now allowed to hack your phone. And among the most absurd examples that can also hack your phone are the Department of Health, Ministry of Justice or the Food Standards Agency.

UK’s surveillance state is so broad and powerful even the United States is concerned, and that’s saying a lot. To the US officials, the secret backdoor request to Apple is now considered as a cyber attack. And that’s precisely what it is. Dozens of British authorities can now hack iCloud accounts of any US person. Now all any US adversary needs to do is to compromise any one of those offices and have the full might of British surveillance power at their disposal. [24]

This is insane. Stuff like this isn’t done in a democracy. This is done in a shithole.

Solutions

I had more stuff to talk about in my original script but I’m going to leave that be part of my Patreon podcast. You can access it if you become a paid member. The higher tier you pledge, the more content and rewards you unlock.

In my original script, I didn’t talk enough about the solutions so let’s talk about solutions. Even if you are not in the UK, this affects all of us, so what can you do?

I divided my solutions into two categories – personal and societal – and both are equally important.

Personal solutions are about what you can do to protect yourself against the surveillance state. To protect your data in a country that will punish you for it means that you have to use a service outside of that country. Self-hosting is not that solution.

Start replacing your iCloud or Google account with a range of private alternatives. I know this is not as convenient as having one iCloud/Google account for everything but you shouldn’t put all your eggs into one basket anyway. For email, Tuta Mail offers encrypted mail and calendar. Proton also offers an encrypted drive. Instead of iMessage and WhatsApp, use Signal for private chats and calls. For private note taking, I like Notesnook and Standard Notes. Use a private password manager to handle your logins and identities – the easiest private option is Bitwarden. To be really comprehensive, I recommend you watch my latest privacy tutorials I’ll link in the description.

If registering an account for a privacy service is blocked in your country, try to get an eSIM from abroad and see if registering with that phone number works. You may also be censored based on your IP address. I recommend that you hide your IP address with Mullvad VPN, iVPN or ProtonVPN. These are all VPN providers based in human-rights friendly jurisdictions outside of control of authoritarian regimes. If these VPNs also get censored, then your only option is to use Tor. Orbot is the official app that will route your traffic through the anonymous Tor network for any app or even full device. It’s slower but it is free and more anonymous than a VPN.

That should be a good start for the personal solutions. Now for the societal solutions. The people who built the surveillance state are nothing without the consent of the governed. The more people act on this the better our rights will be protected. Unfortunately for the UK, much of the population seems to believe the propaganda of the surveillance state. 80% believe public CCTV surveillance should be allowed. 60% believe the British government should spy on UK residents without their knowledge. 50% believe the government should monitor any information exchanged over the Internet and any information about anyone living abroad. [25]

Unless these numbers become an insignificant minority, nothing will change. We need to lobby heavily for the case of privacy and digital rights. The politicians that vote for and advocate for the surveillance state need to be protested, bothered and humiliated. They always use the safety of children to pave their road to dystopian hell with. But we need to flip the logic against them. Oh, you want to spy on the children? Are you a PDF file? Advocating for the surveillance state should be publicly unacceptable. We can do this by spreading awareness, lobbying, campaigning, educating. When our rights are at stake, we must protest and petition and if that doesn’t help, strike. I have tutorials on privacy and anonymity in the streets I highly recommend you give a watch and learn. If you can participate, do it. If you can’t, support them financially. If you don’t have the means, donate your time. This is how you can revoke your social contract if they don’t respect your rights. Do this for any country, state and city you are in. These solutions are not guaranteed to bring victory. But neither is self-hosting… alright, I’ll stop.

Sharing this video and my channel with your friends is also part of the solution. I talk a lot more about these issues and more on my podcast that you can unlock if you become a paid member on patreon.com/thehatedone. The higher tier you pledge, the more content and perks you unlock. Thank you.