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BREAKING: UK House of Lords Draft Amendment to Ban Social Media for Under-16s in the UK
Baronesses Cass & Benjamin, and Lord Nash, propose to turn the UK into The Leather-Wrapped Village: “This new clause would require the Secretary of State to take action to promote children’s wellbeing in relation to their use of social media by […] introducing regulations to prevent under 16s from accessing social media.” The story goes: But
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Open Rights Group: “Tell your MP to attend the debate on the Online Safety Act”
The Online Safety Act […] has enabled a wave of questionable age-assurance providers, restricted free expression by wrongly censoring lawful content, and made it harder for communities to run their own small websites … Parliament will debate this critical issue on 15th of December 2025. It’s time to make them understand what is at stake
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Two posts from 2014: Trolley Problems, Nuclear Weapons, Snowden, Jocks, and Meat-Grinders
These are a pair of Facebook posts from 2014 which I just want to transfer over to my blog for ease of finding; but if you are particularly interested in questions of utilitarianism and outcomes (having seen multiple references to “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” in the past few weeks) they might be
Fediverse reactions
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The world needs social sovereignty | Mastodon Blog | Fediverse’s 800g Gorilla calls for local platforms, for local people…
Because of course what the world really needs is balkanized discourse policed by local law enforcement: “The term digital sovereignty means that an institution has autonomy and control over the critical digital infrastructure, data, and services that make up their online presence. Up until this point, social media has not been a part of this
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What the world might look like if we get a federal GRANITE Act | Preston Byrne | …the joy of this is that it might even be bipartisan
[Someone] referred to GRANITE as a “legal atomic bomb.” I think that description is apt, and suggestive of what will emerge after such a law’s enactment – a state of affairs I would describe as an “Online Censorship Cold War.” The larger the EU makes their penalties, or the bigger and more strategically important a
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“India’s request for satellite-aided iPhone location data is a privacy nightmare” | AppleInsider
According to sources of Reuters, India has thought about a telecom industry proposal to require smartphone producers to enable satellite location tracking. It is to be kept active, so as to better improve surveillance efforts. Multiple sources and documents have emerged, showing that Apple, Google, and Samsung all opposed the order, over concerns for user
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Sometimes even politicians agree that it is necessary for social media to carry videos of people literally and really being blown to pieces…
You have to wonder how the Online Safety Act is going to accommodate such thinking?
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Lord Carlile believes that “[websites can] lose their right to appear on any screen in the United Kingdom” – rather than “citizens will suffer censorship by the British state”
The noble lord might learn “that’s not how it works”: “On the Radio 4 “Today” programme this morning, ofcom admitted that none of the three fines levied so far has been paid. Is it not right that Ofcom should be encouraged to take much stronger enforcement action against those who do not pay by making
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Baroness Floella Benjamin of BBC PlaySchool fame proposes Australia-like YouTube age-ban impacting Sesame Street, Ms Rachel, Cosmic Kids, Danny Go! …
Perhaps the noble Baroness could be reminded that Ms Rachel & DannyGo are primarily on YouTube, not BBC1 as she once was; and that actual YT-provided affordances for kids are essential for modern parenting? Quote: “Also, by relocating to countries with few or no internet safety Laws, children can be exposed to more extreme, illegal or
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I hate that this man has a point
To be clear: this is not the majority of the criticism of the act; let alone the mocking of the act nor the ridicule of the act. I love the BBC, but yeah, no.
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