How could you suggest such a thing?
Ofcom has ordered social media companies to combat online misogyny by changing the algorithms that push hateful content to users.
The regulator has moved to crack down on the “manosphere” and violence against women as part of its mission to make Britain the safest place to be online.
It’s telling people what they may see or hear, not censorship.
Tsk.
Another defendant, Jérome C, a debt adviser, told the court he liked posting on social media from his sofa in the evening. “It was just humour,” he said. “Do you need a permit in France to crack a joke?”
It’s long been an offence to insult a public official over there. Now making jokes about Brigitte’s ladypenis is also – at least this case is claiming – illegal.
Johnny Ryan is director of Enforce, a unit of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties
With some very civil libertarian ideas:
But now more than ever, Europe should hold large US tech firms accountable for anti-competitive market rigging, snooping on Europeans, and preying on our children. Brussels must hold Ireland accountable for failing to enforce Europe’s digital rules on US firms. Enforcement is not enough, however. Europe must progressively replace all non-EU “big tech” platforms and cloud services over the next decade with homegrown alternatives.
Can’t have the Yanks providing things the peeps like.
Along with the anti-coercion instrument, Europe should shut down social media “for you”-style algorithms, that recommend content the user has not asked for, on European soil until they are proven safe for democracy. Citizens – not the algorithms of foreign oligarchs beholden to foreign interests – should have the freedom to decide for themselves what they see and share online.
Civil liberty means only being allowed what the EU bureaucracy thinks you should have or see.
Provided most European governments agree, the European Commission could kick US goods and services out of Europe’s market, or apply tariffs to them. It can strip their intellectual property rights, block their investments and require reparations as a condition of readmittance to Europe’s market.
This is civil liberty apparently.
For decades Brussels has claimed that its market of 450 million rich people gives it unanswerable sway in trade negotiations.
Which is one of those areas where this whole idea goes wrong. The benefit of trade is the imports, not the existence of consumers. Forgetting that is what leads you into this sort of nonsense.
But then Ireland, eh? They didn;t so much get rid of the overwhelming influence of the Catholic Church in what you may see or do as switch that religious extremism to the EU. The attitude is still there – the priesthood should be controlling your life.
Software giant Palantir snubs ‘undemocratic’ digital ID scheme
The US-based company, which had been touted as a potential bidder, said that it would not seek any contracts around it
Global Witness* and Neck Dearden can stop hyperventilating. Because they really were lining up to say that the only thing wrong with it is that the American hypercapitalists would steal Our Data.
*They might be Global Justice Now by now.
For 24 long months now, Gaza has become the most dangerous place in the world to practise our profession. Israel prohibits foreign journalists from entering the territory, so the truth relies exclusively on Palestinian reporters – almost all of whom are members of the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate, affiliated to the IFJ. Too often they work without protection and without refuge for their families. And all too often, they are directly targeted.
So, all journos are locals. With their families and frieds – as well as themselves – all living under Hamas rule.
I would assume the same percentage of journos are Hamas as percentage of the population. But then I’d go further. Hamas are not known for being cuddly civil libertarians. So I’d assume that all output from journos accords with Hamas views. Not – necessarily – because the journos themselves are Hamas but because Hamas knows the journos, their families and friends and where they all live.
I’d expect simple self-preservation to mean that the news reported is the news Hamas wants reported.
As I’ve pointed out before we didn’t believe German media in 1944 (or Soviet in 1980 and so on) so why should we now?
In response to growing health concerns over their consumption, the UK government recently announced that the sale of energy drinks to anyone under the age of 16 will be banned in England.
…
In situations like this, the government’s role is not to micromanage
Astonishing how some people can believe two contrary things before breakfast. Because of course the not to micromanage is followed by:
but to act as a filter between commercial interests and vulnerable populations, including children and adolescents. Parents and consumers rely on the state to sift through scientific evidence, assess safety and regulate products that may do harm. When that process works well, it protects public health and allows us all to have one less thing to think about when choosing what to eat and drink in stores. The decision to ban energy drinks for under-16s shows that governments – grounded in evidence, informed by the medical community and acting in the public interest – can legislate in a positive way for people’s health.
That is, government should, even must, micromanage.
I’ve spent the last 18 years writing frankly, freely and without apology — a practice that’s becoming rarer in Britain. As far back as 2016 more than 3,300 people were detained or questioned over online posts, and recent coverage shows thousands more arrests under the Communications Act and Malicious Communications Act. Thoughtcrime is no longer fiction; it’s becoming policy. Even very recently, Lucy Connolly was sentenced after a post calling for mass deportations — her case has become a flashpoint in the debate over where free speech ends and criminality begins. (Courts and Tribunals Judiciary, The Guardian)
If my work has helped you make sense of the madness, or offered straight talk in a culture of cowardice, please consider donating. £2, £10, £25,000 — whatever it’s worth to you — helps me keep doing what the censors and bureaucrats would rather I didn’t: think independently and write without asking permission.
Democracy also isn’t the highest value anyway:
The arrest of Graham Linehan, the creator of Father Ted, was a departure from democracy, Donald Trump’s state department has said.
Free speech is about civil liberty, not democracy. And yes, to a great extent I would insist that civil liberty is the more imporant of the two.
So, this morning I read that Graham Linehan – yeah, the Father Ted guy – got arrested at Heathrow. For tweets. Three tweets, apparently “inciting violence.” He’s Irish, not even British, and yet five armed cops pulled him off a flight like he was some sort of gangster.
Honestly, it freaks me out. If the UK is starting to drag people in over what they say online… where does that stop? I get it, words can hurt, but since when do we arrest people for being offesive? Feels like a line’s been crossed here – free speech isn’t suposed to be tidy or polite.
And here’s the thing – Americans should be watching too. Loads of big political figures, even Trump-linked folks, travel here. Imagine one of them posts somthing blunt back home, lands at Heathrow, and suddenly it’s cuffs and bail conditions banning Twitter? Could get ugly real fast.
This isn’t just about Linehan or even the UK. It’s about how fragile liberty gets when governments start picking and chooseing what we’re allowed to say. And yeah… that should scare everyone.
All British citizens could be issued with digital ID cards under plans being considered by Sir Keir Starmer to tackle illegal immigration.
The State just want’s to be able to track all.
But don’t stop there. Australia abandoned its proposed law aimed at tackling disinformation on digital platforms last year. This was a mistake. The human rights we deserve in the physical world, we deserve in the virtual world. Platforms that profit from lies must be held accountable for the democratic damage they cause to users of all ages.
From a Peace Prize Laureate FFS.
A Reform council leader’s decision to ban his councillors from engaging with a prominent local newspaper is a “massive attack on local democracy” and a sign of things to come should the party form the next government, the outlet’s editor has warned.
It might be a good idea, might not be. But it’s not an attack on democracy. Could be an attack upon civil liberty – if you want to be extreme about it – and upon freedom of information and so on. But democracy is that we the peeps get to choose the rulers. Newspapers are not included in that.
This is also important, this distinction. Because here “democracy” is being deployed as the ultimate goal, the ultimate virtue. Which it ain’t, of course it ain’t. We limit democracy all the time – see how long it took to gain a referendum on Brexit and think how no one at all is willing to have a referendum on stringing up kiddie fiddlers. Because there are other issues too – like civil liberty, the rule of law and on and on and on. Democracy is not the ultimate virtue – it’s actually just a tool to gain those other things desired in fact.
Playing music out loud on public transport should be banned, the Tories have said.
The Conservatives have proposed using on-the-spot fines to crack down on passengers blaring music or videos from their phones on buses and trains.
Mebbe just polite societies – which may or may not be related to trust.
There’s never been a scrote free society but anecdotally at least they did used to be under control.
Celia Walden
Why Angela Rayner is right and Nigel Farage is wrong about freedom of speech
The Online Safety Act is about safeguarding, not censorship. The Reform leader’s opposition to it is a moral and political blunder
That’s Ms Walden crossed off the list of the perceptive then.
And yes, by the way, the trade she accuses us of is one I would not only take but insist upon. Dick pics, porn and online bullying are costs and they’re costs that are worth it to have freedom of speech – that basic freedom upon which all of our other liberties rest.
Angela Rayner has claimed Nigel Farage would open the floodgates to revenge porn and “fail a generation of young women” by scrapping online safety laws.
In a direct attack on the Reform leader, the Deputy Prime Minister warned that removing protections would enable “a vile, misogynistic culture on social media”.
…
Ms Rayner said the move would lead to a rise in instances of “intimate image abuse” online, which is more commonly referred to as revenge porn and can include uploading images online, as well as sharing them by text and email or even showing another person an image.“Intimate image abuse is a devastating crime and contributes to a vile misogynistic culture on social media that we know translates into physical spaces too,” Ms Rayner said.
“Nigel Farage risks failing a generation of young women with his dangerous and irresponsible plans to scrap online safety laws.
“Scrapping safeguards and having no viable alternative plan in place to halt the floodgates of abuse that could open is an appalling dereliction of duty.
How does age verification stop revenge porn? Also, have we seen some massive fall in revenge pron thi psat two weeks as the “protections” kick in? If not, why would the absence of the protections mean a rise?
After a 7am police raid in July in which officers seized two telephones, an iPad and computer, Mr Moss, a former Labour councillor, said he felt like a criminal.
He was given bail with six conditions, which included prohibitions on posting any communication, online or otherwise, relating to the county’s fire service, its chief and deputy chief fire officers, and posting messages relating to the police investigation.
Can’t tell people you’ve been arrested? That’s some tosser trying it on, obviously. But enough do that and it will become the norm…..
HMRC uses AI to spy on social media posts
Tax office examines workers’ digital footprint and spending habits to look for evidence of cheating
Don’t say anything. They can see you!
Russell T Davies has said gay rights are “rapidly and urgently getting worse” thanks to the rise of Reform UK and the influence of the Trump presidency on British politics.
What gay rights are getting worse? Is there one single “gay right” which is being denied, even has people dreaming about possibly being able to deny?
No, trans is not the same thing. Different axis of human behaviour.
A former Guantanamo Bay detainee is one of at least 466 people facing terror charges for supporting Palestine Action.
Moazzam Begg was arrested in Parliament Square for declaring support for the organisation, which was proscribed earlier this year after the sabotage of RAF aircraft.
The mass arrests came during a rally by activists seeking to test whether the ban would be enforced, with the hope there would be too many protesters to detain.
….
The 57-year-old, who has never been found guilty of any terror-related offence,
He might get found guilty of something now, obviously.