The age-appropriate rubber dinghies of the sunlit uplands
An amendment to the Online Safety Bill uses its age verification requirements to censor subjective legal content determined by government policy. Just like we warned you years ago.
All posts filed under: UK policy
Recent UK government policies, consultations, and controversies related to digital and tech.
The disinformation about the disinformation
If you want to tackle a problem, first you have to overcome the social taboos around talking about the problem. And that's hard when politics constrain the inquiry.
Fixing the UK’s Online Safety Bill, part 1: we need answers.
These unanswered questions need to be cleared out of the way before the Bill can progress, regardless of who takes over that work next month.
Fixing the UK’s Online Safety Bill, part 0: no, it’s not fixable.
Ahead of its return in September, I want to offer some constructive thoughts on how the Online Safety Bill's weaknesses should be improved. That's an academic exercise, though, because this Bill is not fixable.
Here’s why your project is in scope of the Online Safety Bill
An anecdote from the road about the somewhat muddled thinking that has gone into defining the Bill's sweeping compliance requirements.
Your compliance obligations under the UK’s Online Safety Bill; or, welcome to hell
Last month's post about the UK's upcoming age-gating system covered only one aspect of your compliance obligations under the upcoming Online Safety Bill. In this post, I'm going to tell you about the rest.
Pop-ups are dead, long live pop-ups: or, the bait-and-switch hidden in today’s cookie announcement
Today DCMS announced they will legislate to get rid of European cookie pop-ups, ahead of their legislating to require you to implement British identity verification pop-ups.
When it comes to your privacy, the UK has decided that you’re a bunch of c-words
The UK government's new digital strategy has 23,800 words, but there's only one that matters.
Podcast: Internet of Humans
I went on to the Internet of Humans podcast to discuss the UK's Online Safety Bill. I'm a former student of one host and an avid follower of the other, so suffice to say I really enjoyed this one.
Yes, the UK is trying to Brexit the Internet
You're not crazy: the UK is copying the same tactics it used for Brexit and is pasting them, wholesale, into internet regulation.
A quick take on three pretty terrifying changes to the Online Safety Bill
I wanted to jot down some quick takes on three aspects of the Bill which you need to know, in the sense that you will not be able to sleep tonight once you know them.
A peek behind a dark curtain
In an alternate timeline, I've quit my policy work to pose for a photo shoot for a front page broadsheet story about my fictional victimhood.