Open Rights Group
London Mayor Sadiq Khan shows Palantir the door 🚪
This decision recognises that Big Tech has been grifting the UK for years, by locking us into their exclusive products, jacking up the fees and exporting profits.
The future is open source, NOT shady US spyware companies.
It's time for Digital Sovereignty 🌱
#digitalsovereignty #palantir #opensource #sadiqkhan #metpolice #ukpolitics #ukpol
Open Rights Group
"Expanding age verification will entrench the dominance of large tech companies and harm small and volunteer-run services who may not be able to afford to comply.”
The UK must address structural causes of online harms like "surveillance-driven advertising models and the dominance of a small number of Big Tech platforms."
🗣️ ORG's @JamesBaker on the statement from 19 organisations.
Open Rights Group
UK policymakers need to rethink online safety laws.
A new joint statement warns that age-gating and access restrictions threaten to fragment the open Internet and erode the rights of all users.
Read more about the statement from 19 organisations including ORG, Mozilla and @torproject ⬇️
#onlinesafety #ageverification #privacy #freedomofexpression #ukpolitics #ukpol
Open Rights Group
Papers, please!
Digital ID age checks have taken another lunge forward. UK MPs have agreed to new powers to expand age verification across online platforms.
More and more everyday web services will be locked behind digital checkpoints, despite the serious privacy and security risks of this system.
Read more ⬇️
#ageverification #digitalid #socialmedia #socialmediaban #freedomofexpression #childrensbill #privacy #ukpoltics #ukpol
Open Rights Group
“In less than a year, we’ve gone from proposals to check ID for porn to the prospect of checking ID to access social media or unlock everyday features such as livestreams or feeds.
These online ID systems put both children and adults’ sensitive data at risk.”
🗣️ @JamesBaker for ORG.
#ageverification #digitalid #socialmedia #socialmediaban #freedomofexpression #childrensbill #privacy #ukpoltics #ukpol
Open Rights Group
The UK Parliament continues to pursue an approach to online safety that doesn't work.
The Australian under-16 social media ban has failed to make any difference and people have sought ways around it.
Digital ID age checks come at the cost of everyone's privacy and free expression. The math ain't mathing.
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/most-australian-teens-admit-social-111400429.html
#ageverification #digitalid #socialmedia #socialmediaban #freedomofexpression #childrensbill #privacy #ukpoltics #ukpol
Open Rights Group
The problem of online harms lies with the underlying business models of social media platforms.
Digital ID age checks do nothing to change that.
We need to disrupt the advertising-driven business models built on surveillance, profiling and maximising engagement.
Sign our petition #BreakBigTech ⬇️
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/break-big-tech
#ageverification #digitalid #socialmedia #socialmediaban #freedomofexpression #childrensbill #privacy #ukpoltics #ukpol
Open Rights Group
The UK isn’t a vassal state of America.
Yet Trump wants to punish us over a digital services tax.
This can be resolved by ditching US Big Tech from our digital infrastructure.
We should invest in open source to promote economic growth through greater innovation and a more competitive tech sector.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/24/trump-tariff-uk-digital-services-tax-warning
#digitalsovereignty #trump #digitalservices #tech #bigtech #opensource #ukpolitics #ukpol #tarrif
Open Rights Group
More and more governments are waking up to the need for Digital Sovereignty.
Being on the hook to US tech companies is a critical weakness in the UK's digital infrastructure. We get locked-in and dependent on products that can be used as political leverage.
The UK must urgently follow the EU's lead.
https://www.theregister.com/2026/04/13/digital_sovereignty/
#DigitalSovereignty #opensource #eu #linux #ukpolitics #ukpol
Open Rights Group
The UK's love affair with Big Tech is toxic.
A small number of companies have captured the market for the UK’s critical infrastructure from the NHS to defence.
From this position, they’ve influenced policies that entrench the UK’s dependency.
It's time to course correct with Digital Sovereignty.
Read more ⬇️
https://www.theregister.com/2026/04/15/uk_big_tech_dependence/
#DigitalSovereignty #bigtech #tech #opensource #ukpolitics #ukpol
Open Rights Group
The UK government has blanked the risks of US tech dependency for too long.
Our digital infrastructure is a strategic asset.
But that understanding is absent in how we hand out public sector contracts and allow UK tech sector sell-offs to foreign companies.
We must shift the dial.
Read more ⬇️
https://www.openrightsgroup.org/blog/the-case-for-digital-sovereignty-and-the-digital-commons/
#DigitalSovereignty #bigtech #tech #opensource #ukpolitics #ukpol
Open Rights Group
Making ourselves dependent on Big Tech has been a fatal mistake.
The Post Office scandal didn't come from nowhere. Outsourcing our systems to the exclusive product of a single provider means we're locked-in to using it and them.
This leads to over-charging that costs in failure and extracts value.
#DigitalSovereignty #bigtech #tech #opensource #ukpolitics #ukpol
Open Rights Group
The dominance of Big Tech in social media is itself a risk to democracy.
Yet the government supports Big Tech monopolies with ad spending and content without publishing on the alternatives.
They complain about Big Tech’s failures, while only giving users the opportunity to engage through Big Tech.
#DigitalSovereignty #bigtech #tech #opensource #ukpolitics #ukpol
Open Rights Group
Digital dependence poses serious democratic risks.
They include lobbying, interference in trade agreements, deregulation and producing e-waste.
Governments become spellbound by techno-solutionism as vendors promote their way of doing things.
This only leads to greater economic extraction.
#DigitalSovereignty #bigtech #tech #opensource #ukpolitics #ukpol
Open Rights Group
The way forward is having the leadership to promote alternatives to Big Tech and using shared, Open Source tech.
It isn't about 'Buy British'. Open Source allows multiple partners and governments to develop the tools they need.
That means no vendor lock-in that frees us from coersion and control.
#DigitalSovereignty #bigtech #tech #opensource #ukpolitics #ukpol
Open Rights Group
A growing number of MPs that have signed the Early Day Motion calling for a Digital Sovereignty strategy and spoken out in debates.
It'll take political courage to end our digital dependency on powerful tech companies. But the risks of not acting are greater.
Sign and share our petition ⬇️
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/stop-trump-s-kill-switch-secure-our-digital-sovereignty
#DigitalSovereignty #bigtech #tech #opensource #ukpolitics #ukpol
Open Rights Group
NEW: ORG's report sets out the need for Digital Sovereignty.
UK national security teeters on our over-reliance on a handful of foreign-owned tech firms, meaning the plug could be pulled on our digital infrastructure.
We need to pursue open source systems that are in our control.
Find out more ⬇️
#DigitalSovereignty #opensource #report #bigtech #unplugtrump #unplugbigtech #ukpolitics #ukpol
Open Rights Group
NHS workers are being gagged from criticising the Palantir contract 🤐
We can't duck the hard truths that embedding US Big Tech in UK public services carries risks of outside political interference and waste from vendor lock-in.
The alternative is here: Digital Sovereignty with open source tech.
https://novaramedia.com/2026/04/14/nhs-staff-told-stop-criticising-palantir-or-lose-your-job/
#DigitalSovereignty #opensource #palantir #nhs #ukpolitics #ukpol
Open Rights Group
The UK's "over-reliance on foreign [tech] companies has become an urgent issue of national security as US foreign policy actions are creating geopolitical uncertainty.”
Our new report calls for the UK government to pursue Digital Sovereignty to protect its critical infrastructure.
🗣️ ORG's Exec Director @jim
#DigitalSovereignty #nationalsecurity #bigtech #opensource #ukpolitics #ukpol
Open Rights Group
“We could be forced to hand over personal data as part of a digital ID age check to access parts of the Internet and anyone under 18 could be completely banned from other platforms – all at a ministers’ discretion."
“We urge parliamentarians to think twice about giving current and future ministers such vast, far-reaching and changeable powers” when the UK Children’s Bill returns to the Lords today.
#ageverification #privacy #digitalid #childrensbill #ukpolitics #ukpol
We fight for digital rights (UK). Join us.#privacy #freespeech #surveillance #censorship #dataprotection
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