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UK government states that 'safety' act is about influence over public discourse

bsky.app

51–60 of 298 posts

Re: UK government states that 'safety' act is about influence over public discourse

#51
post #45
post #18

For the Americans looking at this act, you're maybe putting it in the context of American politics and thinking who cares if the porn sites have my face or id. But in the UK you can be arrested and jailed for saying something online that offends someone else.

Britain has always been very hypocritical about freedom of speech. Take for example "Speaker's Corner", an area of Hyde Park were police will tolerate any sort of speech - except that, if there are complaints and the speech is considered potentially unlawful, they will arrest the speaker right after he's done speaking.

[deleted]

Re: UK government states that 'safety' act is about influence over public discourse

#52
post #9

What’s with england and its complete lack of response to this kind of power grabs?

there's really nothing anybody can do. protests dont work, riots dont work, petitions dont work, and theres nobody else to vote for who isn't also a cunt.

Voting for the alternatives won't make any difference either.

The power structure is designed in such a way that it is difficult for the Government itself to do change anything.

Re: UK government states that 'safety' act is about influence over public discourse

#53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

there's really nothing anybody can do. protests dont work, riots dont work, petitions dont work, and theres nobody else to vote for who isn't also a cunt.

Voting for the alternatives won't make any difference either. The power structure is designed in such a way that it is difficult for the Government itself to do change anything.

Then create a new party, give talks about this, mobilize your friends, family, make them understand that civil liberty is literally worth dying for

Re: UK government states that 'safety' act is about influence over public discourse

#54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj3l0e4vr0ko I strongly suspect it's also meant to curtail growing support among youth for Palestine in the Israel/Gaza conflict. https://www.facebook.com/reel/665564933022223 Essentially creating an internet for children/teens that echos the government narrative.

The online safety act was drafted long before Oct 2023. But broadly I agree, in the sense that the government are uncomfortable with political movements they lack the ability to shape or control. In hindsight it's incredible just how much influence the British government has historically had over media. The largest TV and radio stations were often directly government owned (BBC, Radio 1, Channel 4) and many newspaper…

Passage and implementation dates count. The Tiktok ban in America was also first floated (and died) well before October 2023. It was revived and passed after pro-Palestinian videos blew up on the platform.

Re: UK government states that 'safety' act is about influence over public discourse

#55
post #47
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why single out England particularly?

Because the rest of Europe has much stronger reaction to unpopular political decisions

EU wants to scan every private message you send. Are there protests in the streets?

"The EU could be scanning your chats by October 2025 – here's everything we know" (https://www.techradar.com/computing/cyber-security/the-eu-co...)

"Chat Control is back & we've got two months to stop the EU CSAM scanning plans" (https://tuta.com/blog/chat-control-criticism)

Re: UK government states that 'safety' act is about influence over public discourse

#56
post #21
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

False equivalence, the local pub doesn’t keep track of your identity.

It's not about accessing pubs. It's about deciding what is a pub.

Better still: it has nothing to do with pubs at all

Re: UK government states that 'safety' act is about influence over public discourse

#57
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

there's really nothing anybody can do. protests dont work, riots dont work, petitions dont work, and theres nobody else to vote for who isn't also a cunt.

mass civil disobedience. Not riots.

What would that look like?

Re: UK government states that 'safety' act is about influence over public discourse

#58

Without passing judgment on the act, this is incredibly misleading. I found the source of the original quotes[0], and they are taken quite out of context. From the article: >First, we are told, the relevant secretary of state (Michelle Donelan) expressed “concern” that the legislation might whack sites such as Amazon instead of Pornhub. In response, officials explained that the regulation in question was “not primari…

There oddly seems to be a concerted effort online to paint the UK as some kind of failing police state recently. This narrative seems to have really taken off with some Americans, who now seem completely convinced that the UK government is some kind of totalitarian oppressor who are snatching people off the streets. Meanwhile, Brits just look on at this narrative wondering what the hell they're talking about. Look, I…

If it was a police state, JD Vance wouldn’t be getting it on his holiday here from protesters and video vans driving around and being refused service in a pub.

It could end up that way but we’re not there yet. If we do get there we tend to make the French look like amateur protestors (look up poll tax riots).

I’m less worried about a police state than a corporate dystopia. The attendee list at Trump’s inauguration would be far scarier to me than the OSA is.

Re: UK government states that 'safety' act is about influence over public discourse

#59
post #47
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why single out England particularly?

Because the rest of Europe has much stronger reaction to unpopular political decisions

I believe the point being made is that you are saying England when it is the entire UK under discussion. You are missing out three of the four nations of the U.K.

Re: UK government states that 'safety' act is about influence over public discourse

#60
post #9

What’s with england and its complete lack of response to this kind of power grabs?

I've lived in the UK for 15 years now and the complete political apathy is probably what bothers me the most about this country. Few years back when they made it so that every ISP had to log your entire browsing history and keep it for a year and 17 different government agencies(including DEFRA, the agriculture ministry!) can access it without a warrant, barely anyone cared. Wasn't really mentioned in public media, o…

> this kind of economic assassination of entire generation of people

It's worldwide, is the issue. A national government cannot solve the problems created by multinational investment firms.

On a related note, central banks have expressed their desire to increase unemployment.

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