The UK is seeking to grant ministers wide-ranging new powers to rewrite significant portions of the Online Safety Act through amendments tucked into two unrelated bills.

The changes would allow ministers to amend the act by adding as much as a third to the regulatory regime using so-called Henry VIII clauses, limiting Parliament to a simple yes-or-no vote on an unforeseeable number of new rules, rather than full debate or amendment.

#OnlineSafetyAct #UKPolitics #AI

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/uk-online-safety-act-ai-harms-government-labour-grok-elon-musk/

The report of the Southport Inquiry (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-southport-inquiry-phase-1-report) makes for horrifying reading.

Perhaps of particular note to those interested in #OnlineSafetyAct issues, chapter 6 (online harms) of the report:

* leads with criticism of a lack of parental oversight / responsibility, which I found unusual.

* suggests that VPN usage in the UK should be subject to age / identity verification.

* notes that X was unhelpful in its responses to the Inquiry's statutory information requirements.

I'm a software engineer & 20yr Labour member: my open letter to the PM on our dangerous trajectory. Banning VPNs & mandating device scanning demolishes privacy for everyone:
https://www.jimmyff.co.uk/blog/open-letter-uk-digital-privacy/

cc: @openrightsgroup @eff
#DigitalPrivacy #Encryption #UKpolitics #OnlineSafetyAct

I find it bizarre that the AgeVerification (AV) industry says “platforms don’t want AV because they don’t want private data” – BUT civil society says “platforms DO want AV because they want private data”

It’s like those criticisms of the BBC where they receive conflicting hate from both sides, so you have to start wondering whether the platforms aren’t simply doing the right thing to have pissed-off everybody.

Probably, yes, given the circumstances.

Compare

https://twitter.com/The_AVPA/status/2043608121768096227

Contrast

https://twitter.com/TaylorLorenz/status/2022428994596221081

'UK looks to hold tech execs personally liable for intimate image abuse'

https://www.politico.eu/article/uk-looks-to-hold-tech-execs-personally-liable-for-intimate-image-abuse/

'A new government amendment, which is yet to be published but will be tabled to the Crime and Policing Bill and debated in the Commons next week, would mean senior executives who ignore media regulator Ofcom's enforcement decisions under the Online Safety Act face imprisonment and fines.'

#UK #ukpol #technology #OnlineSafetyact

Please share & sign this petition: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/762236

We have an opportunity to tell them NO to age verification for all user-user services!

#ukpol
#uk
#onlinesafetyact
#ageverification
#OSA
#privacy

@openrightsgroup
@JamesBaker
@neil

So the UK has signed up to:

"42. State authorities should not directly or indirectly impose a general obligation on intermediaries to monitor content which they merely give access to or which they transmit or store, be it by automated means or not."

Has anyone told DSIT or Ofcom? #OnlineSafetyAct

https://www.coe.int/en/web/portal/-/council-of-europe-calls-for-greater-transparency-and-stronger-oversight-of-online-platforms-algorithms