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UK Parliament: Banning Tor Is Unacceptable and Technologically Impossible
An anonymous reader writes: Months after UK prime minister David Cameron sought to ban strong encryption, a new parliamentary briefing contradicts that, at least when it comes to Tor. The briefing says, "there is widespread agreement that banning online anonymity systems altogether is not seen as an acceptable policy option in the UK. Even if it were, there would be technical challenges." The briefing cites Tor's ability to circumvent such censorship in countries like China as well as looking at both legal and illegal uses of Tor.
Tor falls into the same category as many other items which can be used for both good and bad.
A knife can be used to cut bread, but also throats. Morphine is be best pain killer there is,
but is also a killer when abused. Bitcoin (& co) can revolutionize the monetary system,
but also be used for non-tracable financing for all sorts of illegal activities.
"Non-tracable financing for all sorts of illegal activities" is also a a well-known property of... cash!
Cash is not really under political questioning (a bit more so from banking): it's common,
under relative control, and it's not new.
This leads me to believe that the banning things which can have adverse side effects
is not primarily motivated by care for the public best, but rather fear of the new/unknown and
fear of loosing control.