I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Trump is engaged in tariff diplomacy, using US economic and geopolitical influence for the purpose of defending human rights.

And Trump’s recent victory, as he supported Apple in their fight against the UK government, could be a model to be followed soon in Australia as Google hopefully makes good on their threat to sue the Australian government over the E-Karen’s under 16 social media ban. Yes, this story is about something that happened on the other side of the world, the UK. But make no mistake, it’s also about what’s happening right here, right now, at home here in Australia.

The UK banned end-to-end encryption and demanded the big tech companies to provide the UK government with a back door to crack their encryption so that the UK government could look at whatever it wanted and put an end to genuine online privacy for UK citizens. They did this with legislation in 2016 called the Investigatory Powers Act, dubbed by human rights organizations as the Snoopers Charter. Now, that act was followed last year by a secret technical capability notice accompanied by a gag order. The gag order ensured that even if the UK media did find out about this t technical capability notice, it would be illegal for them to report on it. The irony is not lost on me that the UK government wanted complete secrecy for their plans to end secrecy for the UK people. The whole point of it was that the people of England weren’t even supposed to know that the government had given itself access to all of their data whenever it wanted for whatever reason it felt was justified. This was of course a direct violation of article 8 of the human rights charter which the UK have passed into law. But who cares about human rights? Am I right?

Now, I’m not in the habit of praising Apple. I’m an Android guy myself. But the only reason we actually know about the UK government’s sneaky tactics is because, to their credit, Apple stood tall against the UK government. They refused to provide the UK government with a digital backdoor to every Apple user worldwide and stood firm on their long-held policy of not giving back doors to anybody, not even to themselves. the US government or certainly not the UK government. And instead, in order to comply with this UK legislation, they simply withdrew their end-to-end encryption services or their advanced data protection from the UK market altogether. And that combined with leaks to journalists in the US was what tipped the whole world off to the UK government’s human rights violating encryption ban.

And in a way, this meant that the UK government had won, at least temporarily, because UK citizens no longer had access to Apple’s rock solid end-to-end encryption.

But that victory, such as it was, was very short-lived because this story broke onto international news just after the inauguration of Donald J. Trump and his newly appointed director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard. Now, why would the US president and the USDNI director be relevant to UK encryption laws? Well, because in a move that sounds like it comes directly from our own e-safety commissioner’s playbook, the UK wrote their legislation in such a way that it applied globally. The UK government were in the letter of their law requiring Apple to create a backdoor to everyone’s encrypted files, including citizens of the United States of America.

Yeah, bad idea. And what happened next is hopefully a preface of what will happen if Google follows through on their threat to sue our own Australian government for the under 16 social media ban and search engine ban. My name is Topher Field. This is the Topher project and I help busy people like you to keep up with the world as it changes around you. Now, I am 100% viewer supported. So, if you don’t already or didn’t already know about this story and about how this might show us a way forward in our own fight with the E-Karen, then please support my ongoing work by buying me a coffee via the button at topherfield.net. And if you like my videos, then you will love my books. There’s Good People Break Bad Laws about the role of civil disobedience in the modern world. Good Christians Break Bad Laws, all about the theology of civil disobedience. Plus my DVD documentary Battleground Melbourne and a range of different t-shirts and hoodie designs.

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Tulsi Gabbard, the US Director of National Intelligence, responded immediately when this story broke in February of this year,

stating she had grave concerns about the possibility of the UK government having access to the encrypted data of US citizens and that she would look into it further. The UK were probably caught off guard by this push back. They would have thought that their gag order was going to work. And besides, this technical capability notice was a relatively arcane procedural thing, and it was all based on a 2016 investigatory powers act, which by then had been on the books for 8 years. So, I really don’t think they thought that they were going to get any push back at all. But politicians and bureaucrats are allergic to sunlight. So, this breaking story in the Washington Post in February, followed by this interest from the US government, would have been a very unwelcome shock.

But if the UK government and bureaucrats thought that they could just wait this one out, they were sorely mistaken. Details of exactly what happened next are very scarce. We know next to nothing about what meetings took place, what leverage or pressure was applied, or what deals may have been done. And at the time of this recording, neither Apple nor the UK government have yet come out with any official statement about the backflip. All we know is that the requirement for Apple to give the UK government a backdoor into their end-to-end encryption has been dropped. And all we have to go on regarding how and why is a statement from Tulsi Gabbard herself who simply said, “Over the past few months, I’ve been working closely with our partners in the UK alongside President Trump and Vice President Vance to ensure Americans private data remains private and our constitutional rights and civil liberties are protected. As a result, the UK has agreed to drop its mandate for Apple to provide a backdoor that would have enabled access to the protected encrypted data of American citizens and encroached on our civil liberties.” End quote.

At the moment, that’s pretty much all we know, except that we also know that VP Vance has been very blunt in his criticism of the death of free speech in the UK, taking a personal interest in cases of religious freedom in the UK, especially. And regular viewers of the Topher project will remember that I’ve covered on numerous occasions now the evidence that I believe clearly shows that President Trump is using US economic clout and the threat of tariffs to whip anybody foolish enough to try and take away the rights of American citizens in any form.

Which brings us squarely to Australia and the e-safety commissioner Julie Inman Grant and her under 16’s social media ban which will apply to American citizens. Originally YouTube was going to be exempt. I don’t think originally many people realized that search engines such as Google and Bing were going to be included as well but over time the goalposts were shifted. Search engines were most certainly included. And importantly, the Albanese government, following the advice of the e-safety commissioner, that classic coward’s excuse of, “Oh, we’re just following the experts advice,” decided that YouTube would be included in this under 16s ban after all. But here’s the thing. The social media giants including YouTube, well, they’re going to be required to age verify anyone who is believed based on their content to be in Australia. Which means that American citizens in Australia will be censored. But it also means that American citizens in America who are talking about Australia could very easily end up being censored unless they submit to this age verification.

So the sting in the tail for the e-safety commissioner is that like the UK, she’s written rules that affect American citizens and that means whether she likes it or not, the American government is likely to take an interest. This under 16 social media ban is set to come into effect in Australia on December the 10th, but Google threatened last month that if indeed the government were to include YouTube under the under 16s ban, then they would sue. Now to my knowledge, no lawsuit has been lodged at this time and there is no guarantee that the that Google will follow through. But with this recent backdown from the UK government in their fight with Apple, I would suggest that Google will be confident that if they do indeed go into battle against our e-safety commissioner, then the president of the United States will have their back.

Let’s not kid ourselves though. Although the UK have backed down on their technical directive to Apple, the legislation remains on the books and the UK government might simply wait until there’s a change of president in the White House and then go ahead with their plans anyway. And the same might turn out to be true here in Australia. Bureaucrats are very good at outweighing politicians. Elections happen. Politicians come and go. and the unelected bureaucrat class worm their way up into ever more powerful positions with each passing administration. I suspect that the UK have backtracked on their encryption backdoor requirement only temporarily. And if Google do sue here in Australia and if they win or at the very least force a backdown from the E-Karen then again I suspect that it will only be temporary because in the end this fight is up to us to make such things permanent.

I’m grateful that Trump is using his position to fight battles for freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of thought, and indeed the right to privacy all over the Western world.

But let’s be honest, it shouldn’t be up to him to fight these battles. Australia should never have allowed ourselves to reach the point where this is even a fight that needs to be fought. But here we are. Trump and Google might end up helping us out this time. But if we’re going to win this once and for all, then it’s going to be up to us to make that happen.

Now, there is a protest planned for outside of the e- safety commissioner’s office in Sydney. The date was the 13th of August, but that’s now been postponed due to a bi-election that’s been called for the exact same day. But the new date is being worked out as we speak. So, please make sure that you are subscribed to all of my social media channels, not just to YouTube, so that when the new date is confirmed and I post it on all of my channels, you will be sure to see the announcement. Then you can join me and many others as we stand up directly against the e-safety commissioner and her human rights abusing restrictions on Australians.

President Donald J. Trump along with Vice President JD Vance, director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Apple just won a fight for online privacy on behalf of the people of the UK. And we have a fight for online privacy right here in Australia. And if we’re lucky, we’re going to see President Trump and Google get involved in that fight. And whilst I would be pleased to see such a thing happen, the bottom line is that this is still our fight, not his. And although it would be nice to have the support of the most powerful man on earth to help us in this battle, it will always be up to us to win this war.

My name’s Topher Field. This is the Topher Project and I help busy people like you to keep up with the world as it changes around you. Please help me to keep the Topher project going so that I can continue to create Australia focused commentary and perspective like the video that you’re just watching now. And you can help me to keep going by buying me a coffee via the button at topherfield.net. And remember to check out my books, DVDs, and merch at goodpeoplebreakbadlaws.com.

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