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UK will hold social networks accountable for harmful content
The UK government plans to penalize tech companies like Facebook and Google that fail to curb the spread of harmful content on their platforms. As promised, the country is seeking to empower an independent regulator to enforce the rules which target violent material, posts encouraging suicide, disinformation, cyber-bullying, and child exploitation. Over the coming weeks, the government will consult on the types of punishments available to the new watchdog, including fines, blocking access to sites, and holding senior members of tech companies accountable for their failures.
Both Facebook and Google have previously denied responsibility for the content published on their sites, evoking the communications act in the US to overcome lawsuits accusing them of enabling terrorism and spreading extremist views. But calls for big tech to be regulated have grown in recent years following a spate of controversial incidents, the most recent of which was the live-streaming of the mass shooting in New Zealand on Facebook.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 08 2019, @11:17PM (3 children)
The law is hardly matters, it just means the tech will have to blend in well, and be able to throw people off the trail. There's lots to do, but the talent and money is out there. I hope somebody will put it to good use.
(Score: 2) by SomeGuy on Tuesday April 09 2019, @01:59AM (2 children)
The law does matter. When something needs to be said or a message needs to be delievered, it needs to be accessible to as many people as possible. If you want to just echo your message between between some members of a hidden underground, then fine. But if you need to reach people that can effect change, and can not do so without a potentially illegal technology tool... well, then you have let it become too late and you have bigger problems now.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 09 2019, @02:17AM
Mobile "Scud" servers can multicast.. Those wall wart computers are the best. Think multiple "warhead". And there's still the classifieds. That still works, doesn't it?
Whatever, this whole cat and mouse game will eventually lead to Mad Max. The Great Pirates that run the world will exterminate 6 billion of us in the blink of an eye, if resistance were ever to mount.
We are probably doomed to evolve into Klingons.. That is the course we are on.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 09 2019, @03:36AM
Hmm, if wswswswsws' theory about the nature of the censorship is correct (which seems fairly rational and doesn't require an illuminati-type conspiracy, just a lot of rich fucks acting according to their class interests), a hidden underground might be able to serve as a means of coordination for the theoretical international proletariat vanguard party. Maybe local sections of the vanguard party would have somebody knowledgeable who accesses the hidden underground and disseminates the information via sneakernet (or good old paper).
Freenet would be a candidate for that model (any document-oriented distributed service really). But this might just be me having a crypto nerd fantasy. Ham radio equipment may work just as well. Maybe this role is already being served by number stations. But there is signal triangulation, which leads to the $5 wrench vulnerability, so maybe steganography and cat pics is best after all.
Agree that if it comes to that, it's probably too late, the socialist revolution failed, and fascism has come to power.