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UK's Online Safety Act comes into force

ofcom.org.uk

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Re: UK's Online Safety Act comes into force

#61

Post by pas »

BoxOfRain wrote: post #59
A_D_E_P_T wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> all things considered within a democratic framework The UK has a very funny (literally ha-ha funny) notion of "democracy" -- with people just voting against the status quo most of the time and with "first past the post" resulting in leadership that doesn't have, and cannot even credibly claim, genuine popular support. It's a totally broken system.

If there is one political change I could make to the UK it'd be the adoption of the single transferable vote. There's massive amounts of political alienation in the UK which have complicated causes (often related to the 'managed decline' policies of governments past) but a big contributing factor in my opinion is how many votes are completely wasted under first past the post, if you're in a safe seat voting often fee…

are there term limits for these seats?

Re: UK's Online Safety Act comes into force

#62

Post by zarzavat »

scott_w wrote: post #53
wesselbindt wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> psychological harm amounting to at least serious distress Has shown itself to be vague enough to be a perfect stand in for "harmful" in everything the parent comment says.

Can you provide examples in UK law?

Infamously the Nazi dog salute case: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-43478925

Re: UK's Online Safety Act comes into force

#63

Post by nottorp »

EpicQuest_246 wrote: post #33
benfrain wrote: post #25

I’d like to see all social media sites require proper age verification, much like any gambling sites in the UK have to. No under 18 needs social media. Feel, especially for children, they are a net negative.

Which kills any sort of online anonymity as all social media posts will be directly linked to your ID. This will make it much easier to go after anyone that is a dissident in the UK. Many these awful laws such as one being discussed are sold to us under the guise of protecting the children. The last time I checked 7 people a day were being prosecuted for speech related crimes in the UK (and I checked a while ago). Pa…

> This will make it much easier to go after anyone that is a dissident in the UK.

No need to go there. What about commenting anonymously on your work place?

Re: UK's Online Safety Act comes into force

#64

Post by foldr »

zarzavat wrote: post #62
scott_w wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you provide examples in UK law?

Infamously the Nazi dog salute case: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-43478925

That was a hate crime case under existing legislation. It's not relevant to the interpretation of 'psychological harm' in this new legislation.

Re: UK's Online Safety Act comes into force

#65

Post by jbu »

iLoveOncall wrote: post #31
collyw wrote: post #6

The steady march towards authoritarianism continues. Is there any way that we can overwhelm them?

> Is there any way that we can overwhelm them? Yes: leave the UK. I and a lot of high earners are thinking about leaving the UK because it's simply a punishing country where you have high taxes like others in Europe but nothing to show for them. It's also by far the most authoritarian western country, as exemplified by measures like this one. The way to overwhelm them is to sink the UK by having most of the people it…

Bye.

Re: UK's Online Safety Act comes into force

#66

Post by zarzavat »

foldr wrote: post #64
zarzavat wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Infamously the Nazi dog salute case: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-43478925

That was a hate crime case under existing legislation. It's not relevant to the interpretation of 'psychological harm' in this new legislation.

What's your point? There's no examples of psychological harm under the new legislation because it's new. We can however infer from how the old legislation has been enforced.

Re: UK's Online Safety Act comes into force

#67

Post by EpicQuest_246 »

cjs_ac wrote: post #56

As a software engineer in the UK (and former schoolteacher) I'm supportive of the Online Safety Act. People prefer to interact with people who are similar to them, so they end up with a belief that most people are like them, but as a teacher, I had to grapple with the full distribution of human intelligence. It's wider than I'm comfortable with. Most people struggle to deal with the complexity of everyday life in the…

I am a software engineer in the UK. One of the reasons I want to move from the UK is because so many of our populace has attitudes such as yours. The online safety act won't solve the problems you think it will and will create a whole new host of issues.

What is amusing is that you even admit that you solved the problem of online scammers with your grandparents through education (I've seen the videos you mentioned as well). This is how people stay "safe" is to be educated on the dangers, not for overbearing regulation.

> To anyone who thinks that regulating social media is some sort of prelude to a totalitarian state, I suggest you watch Britons at a traffic-light-controlled pedestrian crossing.

The last time I checked 7 people a day were being prosecuted for speech related offences (I guarantee it is more now). I've seen videos of the police arresting disabled pensioners over spicy tweets, journalists have their homes raided in the UK regularly if they criticise UK foreign policy over Israel (doesn't get reported on btw). We are already in a form of a soft totalitarianism. You just haven't noticed because you haven't been looking.

Re: UK's Online Safety Act comes into force

#68

Post by HPsquared »

pas wrote: post #60
A_D_E_P_T wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> all things considered within a democratic framework The UK has a very funny (literally ha-ha funny) notion of "democracy" -- with people just voting against the status quo most of the time and with "first past the post" resulting in leadership that doesn't have, and cannot even credibly claim, genuine popular support. It's a totally broken system.

how is it not popular support? or your point is that plurality is not enough? or that in a different voting system (alternate voting, ranked choice, etc..) the winner would be completely different?

Conservatives + Reform got more votes than Labour. More people voted against Labour than for them. In any other system they wouldn't have won, and at the very least wouldn't have a majority.

The other thing to consider is that the electorate basically moved to the right in 2024 (Tory voters moved to Reform), but parliament shifted hard to the left.

Re: UK's Online Safety Act comes into force

#69

Post by pjc50 »

pas wrote: post #61
BoxOfRain wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If there is one political change I could make to the UK it'd be the adoption of the single transferable vote. There's massive amounts of political alienation in the UK which have complicated causes (often related to the 'managed decline' policies of governments past) but a big contributing factor in my opinion is how many votes are completely wasted under first past the post, if you're in a safe seat voting often fee…

are there term limits for these seats?

There are no term limits. (I don't think there's any term limit for any elected position in the UK?)

Re: UK's Online Safety Act comes into force

#70

Post by EpicQuest_246 »

ccozan wrote: post #55
EpicQuest_246 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which kills any sort of online anonymity as all social media posts will be directly linked to your ID. This will make it much easier to go after anyone that is a dissident in the UK. Many these awful laws such as one being discussed are sold to us under the guise of protecting the children. The last time I checked 7 people a day were being prosecuted for speech related crimes in the UK (and I checked a while ago). Pa…

Ok but UK is not an oppresive regime, so that we talk about "dissidents" in UK. As anywhere, the freedom of speech is regulated. But even if you spout racist or other nonsense, you are not a dissident, you are just breaking the law, to which I agree, hate speech, racism should not be openly promoted.

The definition of hate speech used to be centered around terrorism and was initially sold to the UK public as stopping "Islamic hate preachers and stopping terrorism". This has now expanded far past that and people are being investigated and arrested for simply opposing immigration (which is often conflated with racism disingenuously), or criticising the actions of Israel, teenagers posting rap lyrics on facebook, and numerous others that I have forgotten about.

If you are not bothered by the expansion of these powers because some people have said things you disapprove of there is nothing I can say to convince you.

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