Open Rights Group

The UK government is playing whack-a-mole with online safety.

Plans to further age-gate the Internet dodges the real issue – the power of Big Tech.

Failing to regulate AI and the age verification industry puts the rights of users in peril.

Read our response ⬇️

https://www.openrightsgroup.org/press-releases/online-harms-millions-could-be-forced-to-use-unregulated-age-verification/

#ageverification #privacy #dataprotection #bigtech #onlinesafetyact #ukpolitics #ukpol #socialmedia

Online harms: Millions could be forced to use unregulated age verification

Open Rights Group has responded to the government’s latest announcements on online safety, including proposals to: Big Tech Programme Manager James Baker said: “The Government is playing whack-a-mole with online safety, focusing on individual harms and product features instead of confronting the structural power of dominant tech companies.

Open Rights Group
Feb 16 at 5:17pmWeb
Show threadOpen Rights GroupFeb 16

The UK government risks creating a new layer of digital infrastructure that concentrates power over identity, biometrics and access to public life in the hands of private companies.

Age gating VPNs, AI Chat bots, or features like infinitive scrolling would expand the reach of age verification.

#ageverification #privacy #dataprotection #bigtech #onlinesafetyact #ukpolitics #ukpol #vpn #socialmedia

Show threadOpen Rights GroupFeb 16

We have no choice, no voice over a privacy intrusive system that's being embedded into everyday Internet use.

It's the platforms that decide on the age verificationprovider.

Users are unaware of the investors behind these companies or the links to wider surveillance, online advertising and intelligence networks.

#ageverification #privacy #dataprotection #bigtech #onlinesafetyact #ukpolitics #ukpol #socialmedia

Show threadOpen Rights GroupFeb 16

An amendment to the Children Wellbeing and Schools Bill would give UK Ministers the power to enact a social media ban on under-16s.

This would bypass Parliament and any democratic oversight on a measure that could only work by having everyone prove their age.

Our rights cannot be an afterthought.

#ageverification #privacy #dataprotection #ukpolitics #ukpol #socialmedia

Show threadOpen Rights GroupFeb 16

ORG calls on the UK government, ICO and Ofcom to establish compulsory privacy and security standards for age verification providers.

This is critical to protect users’ sensitive data as this unregulated industry grows more powerful with each attempt to treat the symptom, not the cause of online harms.

#ageverification #privacy #dataprotection #ukpolitics #ukpol #socialmedia

Show threadPaul HealeyFeb 16
@openrightsgroup Is not age and visual identity recognition the final act of a totalitarian world order ground on corporate sovereignty? Being run by paedophiles, rapists, murderes, racketeers and mercenaries it protects their antitrust programme of genocides and ecocide. They must be begging for protests, strikes, BDS, sabotage and revolution to purge any resistance! #EcocideUltras #TheTotalitarianWorldOrder #TheFall #RisingUp
Show threadPeter BrownFeb 16
@openrightsgroup the legislation has nothing to do with children and everything to do with monitoring the activities of the general adult population
Show threadRetFeb 16
@openrightsgroup interesting you involved AVPA in this. In my experience they were some of the worst “shoot first, think about the consequences later” aggressive lobbyists when AV was being considered. How much money have they taken from their members (who stand to profit massively from AV rollouts)?