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Our response to the Prime Minister's announcement ⤵️
We are banning social media access for under 16s.
These days kids must find their feet in a world where technology intrudes into every area of their life.
I just can’t let that go on anymore. So we’re giving children their childhoods back.Community noteThe UK Government's 'careful review' of the research found a small correlation between children's use of social media and wellbeing, but no evidence of a causal effect:
gov.uk/government/pub…
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/696e0b46…
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Labour Digital Rights Network retweeted
UK sex workers woke up to multiple platforms deleting or restricting their content because of the UK's new porn law, despite many of the videos actually not being illegal or having anything to do with the law 404media.co/clips4sale-con…
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Labour Digital Rights Network retweeted
Much like the Online Safety Act, this new law will result in platforms erring on the side of caution and removing anything that could plausibly fall under its vague definitions, even perfectly legal content.
The mass purge of legal content following the UK's new pornography restrictions is a textbook example of how ill-defined speech laws erode our digital rights.
Facing severe criminal liabilities under these broad and ambiguous guidelines, platforms have deployed blunt auto-moderation filters, resulting in hundreds of thousands of legal consensual videos being taken down.
Beyond destroying independent livelihoods, this over-censorship creates a chilling effect that deters ordinary citizens from exercising free speech, while forcing algorithmic filters to misinterpret and erase queer relationship terminology, kink archetypes, and trans identity spaces as "prohibited."
Read more ⤵️
404media.co/clips4sale-con…
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Labour Digital Rights Network retweeted
🚓 Speech policing is out of control in Britain.
A staggering 62,000 people were arrested in the UK for ‘communications offences’ over five years.
Subscribe to take action on free speech ⤵️
bigbrotherwatch.org.uk/subscribe/
A staggering 62,000 people were arrested in the UK for ‘communications offences’ over five years.
Subscribe to take action on free speech ⤵️
bigbrotherwatch.org.uk/subscribe/
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The mass purge of legal content following the UK's new pornography restrictions is a textbook example of how ill-defined speech laws erode our digital rights.
Facing severe criminal liabilities under these broad and ambiguous guidelines, platforms have deployed blunt auto-moderation filters, resulting in hundreds of thousands of legal consensual videos being taken down.
Beyond destroying independent livelihoods, this over-censorship creates a chilling effect that deters ordinary citizens from exercising free speech, while forcing algorithmic filters to misinterpret and erase queer relationship terminology, kink archetypes, and trans identity spaces as "prohibited."
Read more ⤵️
404media.co/clips4sale-con…
Facing severe criminal liabilities under these broad and ambiguous guidelines, platforms have deployed blunt auto-moderation filters, resulting in hundreds of thousands of legal consensual videos being taken down.
Beyond destroying independent livelihoods, this over-censorship creates a chilling effect that deters ordinary citizens from exercising free speech, while forcing algorithmic filters to misinterpret and erase queer relationship terminology, kink archetypes, and trans identity spaces as "prohibited."
Read more ⤵️
404media.co/clips4sale-con…
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Labour Digital Rights Network retweeted
Meta is in the headlines again, this time over allegations of tracking and collecting patients' sensitive medical information, including appointment and prescription details, as well as health conditions, from healthcare websites and apps. ibtimes.co.uk/meta-pixel-hea…
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Labour Digital Rights Network retweeted
Free speech means defending the right to expression that is transgressive, taboo and unpopular - not just content approved by the state.
The government's rush to criminalise broadly defined categories of explicit content between consenting adults sets a dangerous precedent.
Such vague bans don't make the web safer; platforms over-censor out of legal fear, and ordinary users risk being flagged for ambiguous content.
History shows that state censorship mechanisms never stop at their initial target. Once the state grants itself unchecked powers to police "harmful" or "objectionable" content, reactionary forces will inevitably weaponise those exact mechanisms to censor LGBT+ resources, sex education, and dissenting speech.
The government's rush to criminalise broadly defined categories of explicit content between consenting adults sets a dangerous precedent.
Such vague bans don't make the web safer; platforms over-censor out of legal fear, and ordinary users risk being flagged for ambiguous content.
History shows that state censorship mechanisms never stop at their initial target. Once the state grants itself unchecked powers to police "harmful" or "objectionable" content, reactionary forces will inevitably weaponise those exact mechanisms to censor LGBT+ resources, sex education, and dissenting speech.
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Palantir lobbying ministers under the guise of "building British tech sovereignty" is a complete inversion of reality.
Entrenching a US defence contractor at the core of our health service doesn't make Britain independent. It locks us deeper into foreign corporate control.
You cannot be an "AI maker, not an AI taker" while handing our core public infrastructure to Silicon Valley on a plate.
Entrenching a US defence contractor at the core of our health service doesn't make Britain independent. It locks us deeper into foreign corporate control.
You cannot be an "AI maker, not an AI taker" while handing our core public infrastructure to Silicon Valley on a plate.
Exclusive by @JacobReid02 @LucyGJWhite @mhbergen
Tom Watson, Labour’s former deputy leader who is now an executive at Palantir, lobbied Health Secretary Yvette Cooper on behalf of the controversial US tech firm just weeks before it secured an extension to its NHS contract
“I want to ensure that Palantir UK rises to meet the government’s new social-value tests and helps build Britain’s sovereign technological capability,” Watson wrote to Cooper in a September letter viewed by Bloomberg
He added that Palantir was “investing heavily” in the UK, where he wrote that nearly a fifth of its global workforce is based
In the weeks since the letter, Cooper’s health department decided to extend Palantir’s £330 million NHS contract for two additional years while searching for a potential British software firm to replace the work
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
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Labour Digital Rights Network retweeted
📵 Instagram CENSORED a company selling pillows for using the word ‘pregnancy’
Since the #OnlineSafetyAct came into effect, women’s health posts are being blocked or placed behind ID demands.
This censor's charter is not fit for purpose – it must be scrapped.
Since the #OnlineSafetyAct came into effect, women’s health posts are being blocked or placed behind ID demands.
This censor's charter is not fit for purpose – it must be scrapped.
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Public bodies spend millions on VPNs to secure state data - yet ministers want to strip those exact tools from citizens.
Attacking VPNs isn't about child safety. It's about covering up failed digital prohibition.
Read more ⤵️
techradar.com/vpn/vpn-privac…
Attacking VPNs isn't about child safety. It's about covering up failed digital prohibition.
Read more ⤵️
techradar.com/vpn/vpn-privac…
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Free speech means defending the right to expression that is transgressive, taboo and unpopular - not just content approved by the state.
The government's rush to criminalise broadly defined categories of explicit content between consenting adults sets a dangerous precedent.
Such vague bans don't make the web safer; platforms over-censor out of legal fear, and ordinary users risk being flagged for ambiguous content.
History shows that state censorship mechanisms never stop at their initial target. Once the state grants itself unchecked powers to police "harmful" or "objectionable" content, reactionary forces will inevitably weaponise those exact mechanisms to censor LGBT+ resources, sex education, and dissenting speech.
The government's rush to criminalise broadly defined categories of explicit content between consenting adults sets a dangerous precedent.
Such vague bans don't make the web safer; platforms over-censor out of legal fear, and ordinary users risk being flagged for ambiguous content.
History shows that state censorship mechanisms never stop at their initial target. Once the state grants itself unchecked powers to police "harmful" or "objectionable" content, reactionary forces will inevitably weaponise those exact mechanisms to censor LGBT+ resources, sex education, and dissenting speech.
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Labour Digital Rights Network retweeted
🚨 NEW: The following porn is illegal to possess or publish in England and Wales from tomorrow:
- Strangulation or suffocation, such as restricting breathing through facesitting or hand over mouth
- Penetrative sex between family members or people pretending to be related (like father and daughter), including step and foster-family scenarios where one person is or appears under 18
- Adults roleplaying as children under 16, such as wearing school uniform
Anyone who currently possesses the content above must delete it before tomorrow or face up to 3 years in prison, or 5 years if they publish it
- Strangulation or suffocation, such as restricting breathing through facesitting or hand over mouth
- Penetrative sex between family members or people pretending to be related (like father and daughter), including step and foster-family scenarios where one person is or appears under 18
- Adults roleplaying as children under 16, such as wearing school uniform
Anyone who currently possesses the content above must delete it before tomorrow or face up to 3 years in prison, or 5 years if they publish it
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Labour Digital Rights Network retweeted
Porn is an unpopular thing to defend. Yet although England’s stricter rules will please moralists, they should alarm anyone who cares about freedom of speech or government overreach economist.com/leaders/2026/1…
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👤The Home Office is preparing to use live facial recognition at transport hubs and events for general immigration enforcement - treating every passer-by as a suspect.
Mass surveillance won't fix a broken immigration system.
Read more ⤵️
theguardian.com/technology/202…
Mass surveillance won't fix a broken immigration system.
Read more ⤵️
theguardian.com/technology/202…
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🕶️Smart glasses allow creators to exploit legal loopholes, secretly record women, upload the footage, and profit from millions of views.
We cannot allow tech monopolies to profit from the public degradation and surveillance of women.
Read more⤵️
independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-n…
We cannot allow tech monopolies to profit from the public degradation and surveillance of women.
Read more⤵️
independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-n…
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Labour Digital Rights Network retweeted
“Now that the Government has recognised stronger legislation is needed, it must now finally hit pause on the rapid rollout of facial recognition technology until this is in place.”
independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-n…
independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-n…
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Labour Digital Rights Network retweeted
Norway is proposing a ban on AI smart glasses in places where privacy is particularly important, including schools, healthcare facilities and changing rooms.
People should not have to worry about being secretly recorded while going about their daily lives.
People should not have to worry about being secretly recorded while going about their daily lives.
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Labour Digital Rights Network retweeted
🆔Online ID checks make your personal information a honeypot for hackers.
“70,000 documents related to people’s identities were leaked” after Discord, a messaging app, suffered a cyber-attack - @mayathomas98 warns
Say no to passports for the internet⤵️
bigbrotherwatch.org.uk/subscribe/
“70,000 documents related to people’s identities were leaked” after Discord, a messaging app, suffered a cyber-attack - @mayathomas98 warns
Say no to passports for the internet⤵️
bigbrotherwatch.org.uk/subscribe/
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Labour Digital Rights Network retweeted
No doubt "tackling online harms" is popular - many people naively believe it's as simple as flicking a switch to stop all the bad things happening on social media.
It doesn't work like that. It will inevitably lead to censorship and the removal of perfectly legal material.
It doesn't work like that. It will inevitably lead to censorship and the removal of perfectly legal material.
NEW POLLING: The public does want the Government to act to prevent online harm.
84% support action if there are no adverse consequences.
But even if it means US tariffs and higher prices, 52% still back action. And 57% support action even if X is blocked in the UK.
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"A blanket ban is clumsy and risks being completely ineffective... It could drive children to fringe platforms" - @sam_carling_
Children's online safety requires better parental controls and thoughtful tech regulation NOT a total ban.
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