Notices by James Baker (jamesbaker@social.openrightsgroup.org)

It’s hard not to think our laws on speech in the U.K. aren’t broken when you read about prosecutions like this https://pressgazette.co.uk/news/greg-hadfield-ivor-caplin/ #freeexpression

An online cycling community forum says it will shut rather than having to deal with the onerous requirements of the Online Safety Act https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/401475/ many of us warned they would destroy the best bits of the Internet while trying to tackle the worst.

I did a video on a major platform talking about Blair advocating for digital ID, facial recognition and DNA databases. It got flagged and taken down as ‘misinformation’. Then failed to perform. The misinformation agenda will 100% be used to silence and censor people wrongly. Video now back up after an appeal. #censorship #misinformation #survillance

In terms of actual two tier laws in the U.K. Section 179 of the Online Safety Act 2023 makes spreading false information a crime.

Section 180 of the same act explicitly exempts mainstream media from the offence of spreading false information.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2023/50/section/179 #freespeech #onlinesafetyact

It’s kind of ironic that the Police don’t like being filmed when they themselves are so keen on things like live facial recognition cameras and filming us https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-68533904 #watchmen #police #surveillance

The Data Protection and Digital Information Bill massively expands DWPs powers to spy on your financial assets. Take action at https://www.openrightsgroup.org/campaign/hands-off-our-data/ #privacy #surveillance #UK #DataGrabBill

So it turns out Europol want the access to all the data that would be collected under plans to scan messages for CSAM. Confirming worst fears that child abuse is being used as an excuse for routine mass surveillance of all images and messages https://balkaninsight.com/2023/09/29/europol-sought-unlimited-data-access-in-online-child-sexual-abuse-regulation/ . #surveillance #eu #privacy

It’s welcome the UK Government has acknowledged the technical issues around their plans to scan E2EE messaging. As reported widely in article like this https://www.wired.com/story/britain-admits-defeat-online-safety-bill-encryption/ #encryption #onlinesafetybill

This story about AI generated CSAM is horrifying https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-65932372. As a parent it makes me even more defensive of the need for E2EE technology. If you share family pics on social media you now risk a pedophile using them to deepfake CSAM.

But the cat is out of the bag now. Predators will deepfake images of people they know. These images can destroy people. The new offence in the OSB on deepfakes tries to tackle the issue. Really though we also need the personal tools such as E2EE to stop our own children’s images being obtained, or reduce the likelihood or data set for training this material.