UK's Ridiculous Internet Porn Crackdown Can Be Used To Kill Social Media Accounts
from the wait,-what? dept
Last month, the UK moved forward with the latest version of its ridiculous "Digital Economy Bill" which will put in place mandatory porn filtering at the ISP level -- requiring service providers to block access to sites that don't do an age verification check. But it was at least somewhat vague as to which "ISPs" this covered. The bill has moved from the House of Commons over to the House of Lords, and apparently we now have at least something of an answer -- and it's that social media sites like Twitter and Facebook will be covered by this regulation.In other words, those sites may be required to block accounts and block access to certain porn sites. That's ridiculous. This came out during the reading of the bill in the House of Lords where a question was raised about the responsibility of platforms under the bill:
Finally, I have a question for the Minister. I would like him to comment on what the expectations are for social media sites like Twitter, which can themselves host user-generated pornographic content. The expectations on commercial pornography websites are set out pretty clearly in Clause 15, but will the Minister please clarify how the Bill as drafted will impact on social media sites? Clause 22 starts to cover this with its reference to “ancillary service providers”, but in Clause 22(6) the reference is restricted to business activities so provided. Evidence from the Government to the Communications Select Committee on 29 October was as follows:Later, Baroness Benjamin claims that it's important that they make sure that social media is included in the bill "for the children" (of course):
“Twitter is a user-generated uploading-content site. If there is pornography on Twitter, it will be considered covered under ancillary services”.
How does that apply to material on Twitter that is not uploaded in the course of business activities? I ask the Minister to clarify this point when he responds.
In seeking to protect children from stumbling upon pornography, it is particularly important that social media is covered by the Bill. That is one of the primary ways in which children are exposed to pornography. There has been some debate about the scope of Clause 15 and the ancillary service providers, but it seems clear to me that social media should be covered by this. I was particularly delighted that the noble Baroness, Lady Shields, confirmed to the Lords Communications Committee on 29 November that:The debate over regulating Twitter got pretty silly pretty fast. At least one person noted that the UK was at risk of looking like idiots. This is from "The Earl of Erroll" (gotta love the House of Lords), who then admits he doesn't even know what's possible, but he's absolutely positive that age checks on any e-commerce site is no big deal.
“The Bill covers ancillary services. There was a question about Twitter. Twitter is a user-generated uploading-content site. If there is pornography on Twitter, it will be considered covered under ancillary services”.
Can the Minister confirm that this will be the case and also the case for all other social media, including, Facebook, Tumblr and Instagram?
It is probably unrealistic to block the whole of Twitter—it would make us look like idiots. On the other hand, there are other things we can do. This brings me to the point that other noble Lords made about ancillary service complaints. If we start to make the payment service providers comply and help, they will make it less easy for those sites to make money. They will not be able to do certain things. I do not know what enforcement is possible. All these sites have to sign up to terms and conditions. Big retail websites such as Amazon sell films that would certainly come under this category. They should put an age check in front of the webpage. It is not difficult to do; they could easily comply.Finally, Lord Ashton of Hyde, admits that, yes, of course the bill will apply to social media and all those other sites, because why the fuck not?
The right reverend Prelate, the noble Baronesses, Lady Kidron and Lady Benjamin, and the noble Earl, Lord Erroll, asked a valid question about social media and Twitter. The Government believe that services, including Twitter, can be classified by regulators as ancillary service providers where they are enabling or facilitating the making available of pornographic or prohibited material. This means that they could be notified of commercial pornographers to whom they provide a service but this will not apply to material provided on a non-commercial basis.In that same answer, he pulls an infamous "free speech is important, but..." line that is what you expect from someone about to censor speech:
It is a complicated area. Free speech is vital but we must protect children from harm online as well as offline. We must do more to ensure that children cannot easily access sexual content which will distress them or harm their development, as has been mentioned.And, thus, you go from a system officially designed to make it hard to reach porn on the internet "for the children" to a bill that allows for the UK government to force social media companies to block or kill certain accounts. That seems like a pretty big deal.
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Filed Under: censorship, digital economy bill, house of lords, moral panic, porn, porn filtering, social media, uk
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Do me a favor, for the children...
Gimme safe sex, proper condom use, safe-sane-consensual, when yes-means-yes and everything that means no, responsible bondage practices, and basically everything that you want to be repeated by your audience.
Remind me, what was that thing about counterspeech being more effective against terrorism than censorship? Surely that applies to porn too.
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Re: Do me a favor, for the children...
You're welcome.
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To ban VPNs would be to cripple UK businesses.
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To ban VPNs would be to cripple UK businesses.
Just like leaving the EU - they would never do it..
Oh wait...
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Of course not! You can't let the people decide things for themselves, that's what the government is for!
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There's a lot of buyers' regret as it emerges that many Leave voters didn't bother to consider the ramifications of pulling out of an economic and political trading bloc. I've had many conversations with Leavers who haven't read Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty and who believed that the Referendum was a mandate, not an advisory vote. That's what the court cases were about: mob rule V the rule of law. Applying the rule of law would provide for a more orderly exit than just enacting the will of half of the people via letting Theresa May hand our notice in without going through Parliament first.
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Just because you cannot be creatively evil like that does not mean that the Government will not be with a few intelligent people around.
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You can set up an encrypted connection using port 80, using the SoftEther VPN server program. There is no way they can block port 80, without cutting off the entire web.
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Their own servers
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Re: Their own servers
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Thin end of the wedge?
Some (including me) would say that was the plan all along. Much as "anti-terrorist" legislation is predominantly used for things that no sane person would consider to be terrorism.
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But what about REAL violence??
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Re: But what about REAL violence??
Sex = baaaadd.
Violence = gooood.
And of course, repressing the sex helps promote the violence.
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Anyone ever stop to think that maybe, just maybe, us making sex such an "evil" and taboo thing is really what "will distress them or harm their development".
I often find myself looking around and wondering WTF people are thinking these days. Kids used to grow up out side running around, often put to work at very young age helping parents on the farm. This often even included dangerous things like using axes to chop wood. Families also used to have one room houses where I am sure most kids saw sex on a regular basis. They also knew about it from a young age due to farm animals if nothing else.
So you seriously going to try and argue that our current kids are turning out better now that we wrap them up in bubble wrap and protect them from every little thing?
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You just download the open source SoftEther VPN on to your home computer, and install, and then set up login credentials for remote access.
Then, when you are in Britain, you can merely log on to your the VPN set up on your home computer, and access you social media that way.
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airstrip one is falling over backwards to meet demands
Just shameful, for a country that fought against fascism some 70 years ago, now to reimplement it itself.
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Which is worse: seeing naked people or seeing political stories
Or if Twitter and Facebook do allow users under the age of 18, isn't there a warning that says users may encounter adult content?
And, honestly, is seeing a naked person really worse than a lot of the "political" news?
Which is harder to explain to a 15 year-old: that a lady is posing naked to make money or that propagandists from Russia are influencing the US political process by spreading fake news so Trump will be president to alter the balance of power in the world so the US will be less likely to oppose Russia's interests in Eastern Europe?
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Re: Which is worse: seeing naked people or seeing political stories
Just to comment on your first point, both Facebook and Twitter allow people to create accounts as long as they're at least 13 years old. This is mainly due to an American law (the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act) which requires websites to get parental consent to collect personal information from anyone younger than that. Also, you can browse Twitter and Facebook in a limited fashion without creating an account at all.
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Installing nanny software vs. Outsourcing it to the nanny state
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The UK
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Today its age verification
Tomorow its online identity cards
Your you, im me, she her, hes him
Thats as much bloody information you bloody well need
Sic to think we live in a world that not enough people cared about this for it to be shutdown before it even got out off the concept department........this thing is gonna get worse before it gets better........right about the time when the reality settles in to the folks who were'nt thinking about where this might lead too......a governments warped mentality towards its people under the guise of doing good.....blinded by their need to do good, not really thinking about the consequences to their good deeds, or hypocritically ignoring the bad consequences to their good deeds.............i mean, i might be alright with the good deeds, if they acknowledge the bad and take responsibility, it shows a willingness to not repeat them, more so then denying the thing that suspiciously makes me think its because you want to do it again
Im here thinking maybe now, after getting so much, so fast,
what other outrageous things our masters are gonna release into our lives
Freedoms being stripped from the outside and within, i hope all you guys and gals are saving up your permision to sneeze in public slips
Still living in a world of class systems
Im a human being your a human being
Not
Im a human being your a Pope
Im a human being your a King
Im a human being your a Queen
Im a human being your a Lord
Im a human being your a Baron
Im a human being your a President
Im a human being your a Primeminister
Im a human being your a Politician
Im a human being your a Officer
Im a human being your a Beurocrat
Im a human being your a Rich
The arrogance to convince yourself that you have the right to dictate the life of others that is not your own or without consent..........to practice such a mentality unto others creates the very opposition that you feel compelled to quench, its a fire of unlimited supply, feeds itself, its perpetual conflict......unless one of your deeper darkest secrets manifests itself without mercy, the willingness to mass murder.......an empires bloody tool
Now for the rant......
:)
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i will say this, at least you screw us over equally, so well done, you bastards
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