Labour Digital Rights Network @LabDRN

🎲Speech policing in the UK has become a game of chance. Cumbria Police arrests people for “speech offences” at 14 times the rate of neighbouring Northumbria. In our report, we expose the postcode lottery of policing in Britain. Read⤵️ bigbrotherwatch.org.uk/campaigns/save…

Banning things is easy. Drawing a clear line between criminality and consensual sexual expression is much harder, writes @cgdav135 👇 buff.ly/aT0c5Wy

✍️ Not quite how I expected to make my @unherd debut. If free speech means anything, it means defending even that which we find objectionable or morally reprehensible. Please give it a read. 👇

UnHerd @unherd

2 days ago

Banning things is easy. Drawing a clear line between criminality and consensual sexual expression is much harder, writes @cgdav135 👇 buff.ly/aT0c5Wy

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At conference I had a number of Labour members who were critical/concerned that I am active on here with @LabDRN. Whether we like it or not, this platform is where a significant chunk of political discourse takes place. We should be part of the conversation.

Scottish Greens @scottishgreens

5 days ago

Following a vote by our party Council, the Scottish Greens will no longer be posting on Twitter/X. We have serious concerns about the site's direction of travel, particularly how it has spread misinformation and hate You can still find us on other platforms.

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🔴 NEWS: Met Police officers unlawfully shared the personal information of 179 people, including three children, on an unauthorised retail crime platform. 🔸 Names and home addresses were uploaded to a platform called Auror. 🔸The platform was never risk assessed, reviewed or approved by the Met. The UK's data watchdog @ICOnews has launched an action against the Met's severe lack of accountability. Officers have repeatedly used third-party platforms unchecked - and the Met has nothing in place to stop them from continuing to do so.

Outsourcing asylum reviews to flawed AI risks a dual threat to human rights and national security: Legitimate refugees fleeing persecution may have their claims wrongly flagged and denied, while fraudulent claims pass through undetected, undermining security and public trust. Stop using broken algorithms as a substitute for due process. Read more from @ComputerWeekly ⤵️ computerweekly.com/news/366652122…

🇹🇷 In just one month, Turkish authorities used vague "public safety" laws to block over 1,200 social media accounts, independent news outlets, and human rights monitors, according to a new report by @article19org. Our Labour government must take heed. By maintaining and expanding the Online Safety Act, pushing for mandatory age verification and digital ID checks, as well as granting ministers sweeping secondary legislative powers to restrict internet services, the state is constructing its own digital control apparatus. It can happen here. Read more ⤵️ article19.org/resources/turk…

Doctors are now sounding the alarm, with 150 leading clinicians recently writing to Lucy Powell, the Education Secretary, to warn that we are seeing a 'crisis unfold with children presenting earlier and more severely' with physical and developmental health issues, including language and eyesight problems, due to screen time in class. So why are tablets, monsters and gaming taking over schools across the country? At first, it was the promise of futuristic tech for the digital age. But there's more at play. One former teacher tells me it's the only way for staff to cope. Class sizes in secondary schools are getting bigger and classrooms are harder to control. The admin load is more burdensome. A lot of children have English as a second language and need extra support, while much of the teacher's free time will be spent on things like safe-guarding or filling out behavioural reports. Something had to give, and teachers decided that marking homework was the best sacrifice. ✍️ Lara Brown Article | spectator.com/article/the-gr… | @lara_e_brown

Clinicians warning against classroom screen overuse exposes a massive contradiction in this government's tech policy. Over-relying on screens in schools is damaging children’s speech and eyesight, yet ministers remain obsessed with enforcing unworkable social media bans. We need healthy screen habits in daily life and real-world play - performative bans that ignore the root causes of digital harm will not help anyone.

Steven Swinford @Steven_Swinford

a week ago

Exclusive from @benclatworthy Screen time in classrooms should be slashed as there are fears it is fuelling a “crisis” in pupils’ speech and language development, ministers have been urged Leading clinicians have written to Lucy Powell, the education secretary, to warn that

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As Alex Younger said, the Russians "did not create the things that divide us, we did that to ourselves". The end results of state failure and foreign disinformation operations look remarkably similar. Burnham should be cautious about giving rise to the suggestion that the fears and concerns of ordinary people are the construct of foreign information warfare. labourrealists.substack.com/p/on-informati…

The Rest Is Politics @RestIsPolitics

a week ago

Andy Burnham becomes first PM to confirm Russian interference in Brexit referendum @campbellclaret and @RoryStewartUK's exclusive interview with @andyburnham on tomorrow's episode of Leading is out in full at midnight.

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We are deeply concerned by news that Preston City Council has more than 100 CCTV cameras with facial recognition technology enabled. bbc.co.uk/news/articles/…

Andy Burnham says Russia ‘interfered’ in the Brexit referendum. Where’s the evidence? Foreign Minister: “It has not succeeded...” Disinformation is a real problem - but it's also a term at risk of political exploitation. The public deserves evidence, not vague claims.

Good Morning Britain @GMB

a week ago

The Foreign Minister Stephen Doughty MP is grilled on what the nature of potential Russian meddling in the 2016 Brexit vote after Andy Burnham says it is ‘clear’ Russia interfered in the referendum

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📺The government wants to control your news feed by boosting “trusted” sources like BBC News. This Orwellian proposal would allow the government to decide what we see, hear, and ultimately, think. Find out how you can take action ⤵️ bigbrotherwatch.org.uk/subscribe/

📰How police scanned 1.3m faces across Manchester 🗣️"Scanning people's faces as they go about their daily lives represents a serious intrusion into privacy Without proper safeguards police should pause facial recognition use" manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-m…

The British government is rolling out facial recognition eGates at 13 airports by early 2027 and selling it as a time-saver. Using an eGate used to take 20 to 25 seconds, and the new system knocks five seconds off that. Your face is photographed as you walk up and matched against passport photos the airlines have already handed to border control. This is the same government building a digital ID it swears police won’t be able to search, while consulting on letting police search it. reclaimthenet.org/uk-airports-fa…

A whistleblower revealed Co-op Legal Services is using AI to monitor phone calls and score staff dealing with bereaved customers. High-tech surveillance practices are spreading to workplaces up and down the country - we're pushing back. Read our report 'Bossware: The dangers of high-tech worker surveillance and how to stop them' ⤵️ bigbrotherwatch.org.uk/campaigns/stop…

The UK's centuries-old history of protest has won us all vital rights & freedoms. Today, the Government's draconian anti-protest laws are stifling free speech. This attack on democracy requires YOUR urgent attention - find out how you can fight back⤵️ bigbrotherwatch.org.uk

Ceding the defence of privacy, free speech and civil liberties to the right is a fatal political mistake. The Labour movement's historic tradition is to challenge unaccountable power and stand up for the powerless - not to build a surveillance state. We are fighting for the left to reclaim free expression and champion digital rights. If you feel the same, drop us a message and get involved!🌹

Freddie Hayward @freddiejh8

2 weeks ago

EXCL: there is concern in the White House that the British govt is trying to ‘spy’ on US officials and Nigel Farage by getting access to Apple’s encrypted data Details in this week’s NS on the Suspicious Relationship:

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Spot on from @darrenpjones - but being "pro-worker" in the AI age means taking on Big Tech monopolies. For too long, the narrative around AI has been driven by tech executives promising frictionless productivity. The reality on the ground is white-collar displacement, the erosion of entry-level jobs for young people, and the spread of invasive "bossware" that monitors keystrokes and micro-manages employees. Labour's historic mission has been to defend the power of working people against unaccountable capital. We cannot allow AI to become another tool of corporate control over the working class.

Darren Jones MP @darrenpjones

2 weeks ago

I keep raising the alarm bell about AI removing jobs, instead of enhancing them; and companies improving profits but workers losing their wages. I’m often told: there’s no evidence of AI disrupting the labour market. We have to shape AI in the interests of workers and the UK

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🚨 "You can't ban yourself to safety." Australia’s ban failed because digital prohibition is impossible to enforce and fails to address the root causes of online harm. Banning young people doesn't fix Big Tech's toxic business model. Instead, it just drives teens towards unmoderated corners of the internet, and deters them from seeking help when things go wrong. Read more ⤵️ huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/uk-socia…