Browsers and TLS infrastructure have been solving that for a while now, via certificate transparency. Browsers can now reject any certificate that isn't publicly logged. So, yes, they could MITM, and burn an entire CA doing it.

▲ ndriscoll 3 hours ago | parent [-]

If you're dealing with an authoritarian state they don't need to burn anything or care about cert logging. They can:

  1. Make it illegal to distribute a browser that distrusts their CA

  2. Make it illegal to run a browser that distrusts their CA

  3. Block all encrypted traffic that they can't MITM and notify police that you are running illegal software

	▲	JoshTriplett 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Sure, a state can do that, and some have tried at various times. But even authoritarian states have a number of competing aims they have to balance. And CT makes authoritarian goals harder; they can no longer do as much surreptitiously.