UK regulator Ofcom probes Telegram under the Online Safety Act over alleged CSAM sharing, alongside teen chat platform investigations 📱
Case tests compliance powers like fines or blocking, raising tensions between enforcement, encryption, and user privacy rights ⚖️

🔗 https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/uk-probes-telegram-teen-chat-sites-over-csam-sharing-concerns/

#TechNews #Telegram #Ofcom #OnlineSafetyAct #Privacy #Cybersecurity #Encryption #ContentModeration #DigitalRights #Surveillance #Regulation #Infosec #DataProtection #UK #Tech #CSAM #Teen #ChildSafety

UK probes Telegram, teen chat sites over CSAM sharing concerns

Ofcom, the United Kingdom's independent communications regulator, has launched an investigation into Telegram based on evidence suggesting it's being used to share child sexual abuse material (CSAM).

BleepingComputer

A new, revolutionary, proudly UK-based VPN service is coming up. With it, from anywhere in the world, you CAN NOT SEE any webpage which you CAN SEE on your normal Internet connection. The service will let you reveal unique content exclusive to UK residents! Discover https://imgur.com/ , https://uk.lemmy.zip/ and the growing list of safe resources!

#UK #UKPol #OnlineSafetyAct #VPN

The UK government has put out a consultation asking about

  • Social media age restrictions
  • Age verification technology
  • Restricting dark patterns like autoplay
  • Phones in schools
  • "Digital age of consent"

This is our chance to make our voices heard and influence legislation & guidance. Fill it out, and share it with your friends!

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/growing-up-in-the-online-world-a-national-consultation

#OnlineSafetyAct #uk #ukPol #privacy #privacyRights #ChatControl #surveilance #socialMedia #adTech

Growing up in the online world: a national consultation

We are consulting on further measures to prepare children for the future in an age of rapid technological change. This includes potential age restrictions on social media and other services such as gaming sites and AI chatbots, restrictions on addictive design features and risky functionalities, and better support for parents and families.

GOV.UK

Age checks and digital ID are being sold as safety and convenience. But when proving who you are becomes the price of using everyday digital tools, privacy stops being a right and starts becoming permission.

Will you accept digital life being gated by Identity checks, or push back now?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keJL1NWpZ4A

#Privacy #DigitalID #OnlineSafetyAct #UKPolitics #Freedom

Will You Stand for This?!

YouTube

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/

UK plan to tackle AI harms would ‘bypass democratic process’

The government is seeking powers to allow ministers to rewrite significant portions of the Online Safety Act

openDemocracy

The same implication is given to this one, amendments to the #ChildrensWellbeingAndSchoolsBill, in which it says in a few places that the #SecretaryOfState can amend the #OnlineSafetyAct in any way to restrict "children's" ability to access the internet.

https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbill/59-01/0383/amend/children_rm_ccla_0305.pdf

In other parts of this #Law, conveniently split by the end of a page, section 367 is worded in a way some have interpreted to allow the #SecretaryOfState to amend the #OnlineSafetyAct without ANY input from #Parliament, the people we supposedly elected to represent us.

https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbill/59-01/0416/240416.pdf

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

jimmyff | An open letter to the UK Government on digital privacy

I'm a software engineer and 20-year Labour member, and this is an open letter to the PM warning that the UK is on a dangerous trajectory. I genuinely don't know if the Home Office grasps that banning VPNs, mandating device scanning , and requiring universal identity checks demolishes privacy for everyone -or if this is deliberate. This is my attempt to ask them to reconsider and start listening to the technical community.

jimmyff

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

#ageVerification #feed #onlineSafety #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”
https://alecmuffett.com/article/156094
#AgeVerification #OnlineSafety #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 ha…

Dropsafe