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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

#71
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It’s not a very specific point of comparison to serve as a response to scott_w’s question. You can infer that legislation is sometimes badly interpreted and badly enforced. I’m sure this new legislation will be badly interpreted and badly enforced in some instances. That doesn't lead us to the sort of over-the-top scenario that briandear was painting.

Re: UK's Online Safety Act comes into force

#72

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.

Agree with you. I’m not sure why people believe that only the physical world and not the virtual one should have some amount of regulation. I think a good portion of HN has drunk the kool aid of their employers/industry and is almost religiously unwilling to consider an alternative viewpoint without resorting to shouting ‘fascist’ and ‘1984’. Maybe someone needs to write a book called 2024 about the hellscape we curr…

Why would it be the "kool aid of their employers"? My employers would surely love to track every single click I make on the work and even personal PC. If the government tracks it that's also fine. Still less risk for them if I'm a nutter and the checks get outsourced to the government. Once the data leaks they can check what I was doing anyway.

Re: UK's Online Safety Act comes into force

#73
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The same is true of many different pairs of parties! It's been a long time since any winner had over 50% of the popular vote.

2024: 33%

2019: 43.6%

2017: 42.3% (Lab: 40%!)

2015: 36.9%

2010: 36.1%

2005: 35.2%

2001: 40.7%

1997: 43.2%

1992: 41.9%

The last election where the winning party got over 50% of the popular vote was .. 1931.

Re: UK's Online Safety Act comes into force

#74
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ofcom is an independent regulator; it's far from the "first-party" you're implying it is.

The Q in Quango stands for Quasi.

Right, so calling it "3rd party" would be a stretch, but it's definitely not "1st party". I think "2nd party" would be a fair compromise.

Re: UK's Online Safety Act comes into force

#75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree with you. I’m not sure why people believe that only the physical world and not the virtual one should have some amount of regulation. I think a good portion of HN has drunk the kool aid of their employers/industry and is almost religiously unwilling to consider an alternative viewpoint without resorting to shouting ‘fascist’ and ‘1984’. Maybe someone needs to write a book called 2024 about the hellscape we curr…

Why would it be the "kool aid of their employers"? My employers would surely love to track every single click I make on the work and even personal PC. If the government tracks it that's also fine. Still less risk for them if I'm a nutter and the checks get outsourced to the government. Once the data leaks they can check what I was doing anyway.

Social media companies don’t want any kind of regulation because it adds cost to them. Their PR bangs the drum of free speech and people economically tied to the industry gobble it up while trying to ignore the self serving nature of their new beliefs.

Re: UK's Online Safety Act comes into force

#76
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The same is true of many different pairs of parties! It's been a long time since any winner had over 50% of the popular vote. 2024: 33% 2019: 43.6% 2017: 42.3% (Lab: 40%!) 2015: 36.9% 2010: 36.1% 2005: 35.2% 2001: 40.7% 1997: 43.2% 1992: 41.9% The last election where the winning party got over 50% of the popular vote was .. 1931.

Yes it's been undemocratic for a long time. The 2024 one was just particularly egregious.

Re: UK's Online Safety Act comes into force

#77
post #55

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.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/dec/11/britain-...

Certain types of demonstrator get very heavily cracked down on, and it's not usually the anti-immigrant ones.

Re: UK's Online Safety Act comes into force

#78
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Okay, but what kind of voting system can capture this well (and what does it mean)?

We don't know how people would have voted in this hypothetical. (Likely there would be a lot more parties, which generally is good.)

Also C+R could have formed a coalition. (Or merge into a new party ... or - I haven't looked up how R came to be, but I assume it's a spin-off of/from C - R could have merged back into C, right?)

Re: UK's Online Safety Act comes into force

#79
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Okay, but what kind of voting system can capture this well (and what does it mean)? We don't know how people would have voted in this hypothetical. (Likely there would be a lot more parties, which generally is good.) Also C+R could have formed a coalition. (Or merge into a new party ... or - I haven't looked up how R came to be, but I assume it's a spin-off of/from C - R could have merged back into C, right?)

[deleted]

Re: UK's Online Safety Act comes into force

#80
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Okay, but what kind of voting system can capture this well (and what does it mean)? We don't know how people would have voted in this hypothetical. (Likely there would be a lot more parties, which generally is good.) Also C+R could have formed a coalition. (Or merge into a new party ... or - I haven't looked up how R came to be, but I assume it's a spin-off of/from C - R could have merged back into C, right?)

[deleted]
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