HydraPort

Lvl 21 | British 🇬🇧 • Radical Centrist • Public Transport Enjoyer • Occasionally a Businessperson

[Peter Hague @peterrhague]

I need the government to lock up criminals, defend the nation, build infrastructure, collect the bins, and a few other services - basic research etc. I’m not an anarchist or anything.

What I don’t need from the government is moral instruction. I don’t need them to tell me how to raise my kids. I don’t need them to nudge me into better dietary choices. I certainly don’t need them hamfistedly backdooring my devices to check I’m not doing anything they don’t like.

GTFO of my life, thank you. You’re not smarter than me, you aren’t qualified to manage me, please leave me alone.

[Signal @signalapp]

Our statement on the UK government’s demand that all content on all devices sold or used in the country be scanned, on the presumption of nudity, using a dystopian combination of age verification and content scanning. This proposal will not safeguard children. It endangers us all.

https://t.co/VdWe9uhi8p

[Labour Digital Rights Network @LabDRN]

While protecting young people from exploitation is a noble and vital goal, the PM is deliberately ignoring the terrifying reality of how his proposed policy would actually be enforced.

Companies like Apple and Google will effectively be forced to introduce state-mandated surveillance software (spyware) on every single phone, tablet and laptop in the UK.

Furthermore, because each device must know if the user is a child to block the content, this policy guarantees the roll-out of mandatory digital ID checks for the entire population, effectively killing internet privacy and online anonymity for us all.

We also must question the sudden sense of urgency and tough talk today.

Just last month, Jess Phillips resigned from the government over this exact issue, calling out Starmer for pursuing only "incremental change," and worrying more about upsetting tech bosses than protecting children.

Why the sudden pivot? It is hard to see this ultimatum as an act of genuine conviction. Instead, much like his rushed, unworkable social media ban, it looks like another desperate cynical attempt to shore up Starmer's political legacy before the looming by-election and leadership contest.

[Ranty Man @RanTeeThree]

We want tech companies to build back doors into everyone's phones under the guise of protecting children.
Today: sexually explicit images
Tomorrow: anti government memes

[Big Brother Watch @BigBrotherWatch]

📱A social media ban for children means ID checks for all of us to post online

Free speech online is vital for democracy to thrive & it's under attack.

We've launched a speedy tool for you to tell your MP to reject plans to create digital checkpoints⤵️
https://t.co/8TBWFeVxNB

[ॐ┆June ☮️🧡 @Gr3yh0und_1]

does the government know all schools recommended youtube for revision resources

[Ella Dorn 唐棠 @elladorn_]

OK so is there any way to regulate govt consultations to avoid this obviously anti-democratic tendency? Can we set up an avenue to question consultation design? Is this a job for @quibbleUK maybe

[Nomos Events🌳 @NomosEvents]

The consultation:

[Peter Hague @peterrhague]

No, Keir Starmer will announce mandatory ID checks for all social media in the next two weeks.

Let’s not be naive about what this is really about. They want to be able to track down anons and send the cops round.

[Sam Masemula @Sam_Masemula]

@PolitlcsUK Every parent of a teenager in the UK reading this and immediately knowing their kid will have a workaround within 48 hours of the ban launching.

[Arcade Gannon @GaytriotGannon]

@PolitlcsUK STOP PANDERING TO SHITTY PARENTS AND USING "PROTECTING THE CHILDREN" AS A PRETEXT FOR DESTROYING THE FREE AND OPEN INTERNET!

[Labour Digital Rights Network @LabDRN]

If Keir Starmer wants this social media ban to be his legacy, it will be a legacy of mass surveillance and digital exclusion.

Reports that the Prime Minister is rushing to announce a blanket ban on social media for under-16s ahead of the Makerfield by-election show a government abandoning evidence-based policymaking for easy headlines.

What kind of legacy condemns young people to digital exclusion while forcing digital ID checks on the entire adult population just to participate in modern public life?

The government is trying to point to Australia as a success story, but the evidence proves the exact opposite:

Research commissioned by the @mollyroseorg reveals that over 60% of teens in Australia are still actively using their social media accounts. Worse still, 51% say the ban has made no difference to their online safety, and 14% actually feel less safe. Prohibition doesn't work.

Most chillingly, this ban cannot be enforced without fundamentally altering everyone's relationship with the internet. Tech companies have already warned that implementing a ban on under-16s is incredibly difficult without robust digital identification.

Starmer's legacy threatens to be the death of online anonymity. We cannot accept a policy that destroys the digital rights of the entire population to secure a short-term political win, all while letting unaccountable tech monopolies completely off the hook for their toxic attention-monopolising algorithms.

Read more ⤵️
https://t.co/aSJ5jDUGoV

[Sangita Myska @SangitaMyska]

Maria, You seem unaware of the following facts. In practice and through law, this is secular country. @SadiqKhan is an elected public official. He is the Mayor of London whose personal faith is Islam. He is not a Muslim Mayor, a religious leader or Mayor for only Muslims. Your attempt to shame Khan is deeply misguided and in poor taste.

[Big Brother Watch @BigBrotherWatch]

📵NEWS: The UK Government is planning to force tech companies to restrict phones

“This will only result in population-wide ID checks for all of us to use our phones, tablets and laptops.

These plans would replace efforts for meaningful tech and parental responsibility with performative, authoritarian government control that children can easily circumvent by accessing adult-registered devices." - @silkiecarlo

Read⤵️
https://t.co/f7Y9x6aXRT

[Today's Railways UK @TodaysRailways]

The first of the next batch of 10 @TfL Elizabeth Line trains (345071) is now complete & on test at @AlstomUK Derby, with work well underway on 072. 071 is due to be delivered to Old Oak on 15/06, due to be hauled by a ROG 93. Fault free running will then be undertaken on the WCML

[F @9bar_uk]

@doctor_rahmeh @HashashinTag Palintir is a national security risk.

[Silkie Carlo @silkiecarlo]

🚨 NEWS: UK Government set to force tech companies to restrict phones “for the children”.

It’s likely to mean:

🔴 ID requirement for all devices (or child-locked phone without one)

🔴 government spyware in your pocket (aka client side scanning)

😱

https://t.co/S42gJUmdpu

[miss pigathia lee @nell_nickson]

no shade but why even bother living in a western country if our values bother you that much

[Mark ⛵️ @Marinerselectra]

Your state is shaped like a vape idgaf