TVs were not meant to connect to the internet
this post was submitted on 06 May 2026
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It's fine when they brick our property, but its a crime when we brick their property.
No, no. It's worse: it's a crime when you bypass the system to avoid getting a bricked TV.
Forced updates should be outlawed.
That becomes a problem when we're talking about the 1% of updates that are sent to prevent your smart TV from becoming part of a distributed botnet, though. Some people might even complain about the 9% of updates intended to keep up with churn in the APIs of 3rd-party services that are part of the functionality the device was purchased for.
What we need is something that restricts forced updates to those categories. That requires regulation, which likely means starting in the EU, since that's the only major jurisdiction that's (sometimes) pro-consumer. We also need regulations on labeling that force the manufacturer to indicate on the outside of the packaging in big letters exactly what advertised functionality of a device will break if it's kept off the internet.
Why would producers control the device I paid for?
What we need is TVs that don't require an internet connection. I wanna stream stuff, but I'm very capable of booking up a streaming box or even an old laptop for that purpose.
My TLC TV has wifi, but it's never been enabled, and everything works via a fancy little plug called HDMI. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
As should forced Internet connectivity