Authorities to make use of On-line Security Act to toughen guidelines forcing social media companies to sort out ‘revenge porn’
Good morning. Keir Starmer is in Washington in the present day the place he’s holding talks within the White Home with President Biden which ought to verify a call which may assist Ukraine considerably in its battle in opposition to Russia. Dan Sabbagh is travelling with him, and right here is his in a single day story.
The important thing assembly will happen late tonight. This weblog could have closed by then, and most of our protection of the Ukraine components of Starmer’s journey shall be on our Ukraine battle dwell weblog, which is right here.
Again within the UK, parliament is now in recess, as a result of the occasion convention season is beginning this weekend (with the Liberal Democrats, in Brighton). The federal government is specializing in an announcement that may toughen the regulation on what it describes as “the sharing of non-consensual intimate pictures” – or ‘“revenge porn”, as it’s extra generally recognized.
“Revenge porn” is already unlawful; it’s an offence below part 66B of the Sexual Offences Act 2003. However in the present day Peter Kyle, the science secretary, is asserting that on-line porn will now be place in probably the most critical class of on-line offence below the On-line Security Act.
Explaining what it will imply in follow, the Division for Science, Innovation and Expertise says in a news release:
The On-line Security Act would require social media companies and search companies to guard their customers from unlawful materials on their websites, with protections attributable to come into drive from spring subsequent yr. Essentially the most critical types of unlawful content material are classed as ‘precedence offences’ which means regulated on-line platforms could have extra duties to proactively take away and cease from showing on their websites.
In the present day’s transfer will imply intimate picture offences are handled as precedence offences below the Act, placing them on the identical footing as public order offences and the sale of weapons and medicines on-line.
If companies fail to adjust to their duties the regulator Ofcom could have sturdy enforcement powers, together with imposing fines that might attain as much as 10% of qualifying worldwide income.
And that is how Kyle defined it in an interview with Sky Information this morning.
The 2 actions that may end result from what I’m doing in the present day is that social media corporations should take motion to forestall any materials going surfing within the first place. They need to show to our regulator Ofcom that they’ve taken the measures – in different phrases, they’re utilizing the algorithms – to guard folks, to not enable content material to go on.
Secondly, if content material does make it onto these platforms, the platform house owners should take motion to take away it swiftly. In the event that they don’t, there shall be very heavy fines consequently.
What I’m attempting to do is transfer away from the very fact the place these corporations are allowed to supply merchandise into our society, harms emerge, after which we cope with the harms. What I’m attempting to do is be certain the security is baked in from the outset, so the harms don’t emerge within the first place.
There’s not a lot within the diary in the present day, however the UK politics information by no means dries. I’m certain we’ll discover a lot to cowl.
If you wish to contact me, please put up a message beneath the road (BTL) or message me on social media. I can’t learn all of the messages BTL, however for those who put “Andrew” in a message aimed toward me, I’m extra prone to see it as a result of I seek for posts containing that phrase.
If you wish to flag one thing up urgently, it’s best to make use of social media. I’m nonetheless utilizing X and I’ll see one thing addressed to @AndrewSparrow in a short time. I’m additionally attempting Bluesky (@andrewsparrowgdn) and Threads (@andrewsparrowtheguardian).
I discover it very useful when readers level out errors, even minor typos (no error is just too small to appropriate). And I discover your questions very attention-grabbing too. I can’t promise to answer to all of them, however I’ll attempt to reply to as many as I can, both BTL or typically within the weblog.
Key occasions
James Cleverly says he is ‘outperformed’ different Tory management candidates, however is ‘underestimated’ as a result of he does not boast
James Cleverly has prompt that his personal modesty is partly holding him again in his marketing campaign to be the following Tory chief.
He made the argument in an interview with the BBC’s Nick Robinson by which he claimed that, though he was higher certified than his revivals, his reluctance to boast about it led to him being “underestimated”.
Cleverly is one in every of 4 candidates left within the contest. Within the latest round of voting on Tuesday, he was joint third with Tom Tugendhat, behind Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick, who got here high.
However Cleverly has extra ministerial expertise than the others, and he has held two of the three so-called nice places of work of state (having been overseas secretary, and residential secretary – however not chancellor) – one thing few politicians obtain.
Talking on Robinson’s Political Pondering podcast, Cleverly stated:
I’ve outperformed everybody else on this management ticket … I’ve outperformed all the opposite runners and riders by a rustic mile – outperformed nearly everybody else in my parliamentary consumption. In the event you Tipp-exed the phrases ‘James Cleverly’ off my political CV and slid it throughout the desk, you’d take a look at it and go, ‘bloody hell’.
Cleverly claimed that he was “actually good at his job”, however that his abilities weren’t at all times appreciated as a result of his reluctance to go on about this.
I’m actually good at my job. And I’ve spent loads of my profession being a bit of bit diffident. I’m surrounded in my work by those who parade their accomplishments like peacock feathers. And that’s not a criticism, it’s simply an statement.
I’ve maybe by way of my profession been a bit of bit much less like that. And I’m due to this fact aware that typically I’ve been under-estimated …
I’m really actually fairly good at my job. And I’m a bit fed up of pretending that I’m not good at my job.
Excessive courtroom overturns final authorities’s determination to approve new coal mine in Cumbria
Right here is Helena Horton’s story in regards to the excessive courtroom ruling saying the proposed new coal mine at Whitehaven in Cumbria mustn’t go forward.
In line with Patrick Maguire from the Instances, 27 Labour backbenchers have been appointed as “mission champions” – a job that appears to contain being an unpaid, regional cheerleader for the federal government (one thing you may count on Labour MPs to be doing anyway).
CUT-OUT-AND-KEEP GUIDE TO NO 10’S FAVOURITES:
Ellie Reeves, Labour chair, has simply emailed PLP to disclose that 27 MPs have been made “mission champions”
“They are going to work throughout departments, working with ministers… to assist ship our long-term plan for nationwide renewal.” pic.twitter.com/8l6Y5tN0wK
— Patrick Maguire (@patrickkmaguire) September 12, 2024
Ellie Reeves, Labour chair, has simply emailed PLP to disclose that 27 MPs have been made “mission champions”
“They are going to work throughout departments, working with ministers… to assist ship our long-term plan for nationwide renewal.”
These MPs — mission champions, I ought to say — have been convened at No 10 yesterday by Reeves and Vidhya Alakeson, the prime minister’s political director. One attendee stated the main focus was already on the following GE. Sounds just like the 5 nationwide roles will contain a little bit of comms.
This appears to be a novel instance of a development that’s properly defined and mocked in Sam Freedman’s glorious new ebook about what’s improper with authorities within the UK, Failed State. Prime ministers wish to oblige their MPs to remain loyal, however there’s a authorized restrict on the variety of MPs who can function ministers (95, together with whips). Ministers are, actually, the payroll vote. Tony Blair obtained spherical this by increasing the variety of parliamentary personal secretaries (unpaid aides – the non-payroll payroll vote), and whereas previously solely senior ministers obtained a PPS, now they’re much extra frequent. As Freedman explains, the Tories pushed the creation of loyalty-inducing non-jobs even additional.
Conservative prime ministers have lately taken this method to the following degree. Having exhausted the chances of the PPS position, they’ve invented complete swathes of jobs with no precedent, and no pay or ministerial tasks, making a ‘wider payroll’ vote. Cameron created ‘large society ambassadors’; Theresa Could added ‘commerce envoys’ to numerous international locations which additionally provided the promise of unique junkets; Boris Johnson threw in a number of ‘vice-chairs’ of the Conservative occasion.
This trick doesn’t at all times work. The previous Tory MP Charlotte Leslie instructed me in regards to the whips’ try to make use of her ‘large society ambassadorship’ to cease her voting in opposition to the federal government: ‘I keep in mind as soon as once I was rebelling on Lords reform, my whip phoned me up, and I stated, “I’m simply not doing this. It’s simply nuts.” And he stated, “Charlotte, for those who don’t vote for this, we’ll revoke your large society ambassadorship.” And I hooted with laughter and stated, “Do you truthfully assume that issues?” . . . My downside with politics is that I used to be fully, catastrophically, unable to see this factor, aside from for what it was, which was some ridiculous hat, that somebody provides you to put on . . . as a result of they assume you’re going to vote for them.’
Luke Tryl, the UK director of Extra in Widespread, has posted these on X about their voting intention (VI) ballot talked about earlier. (See 10.21am.) This put up has the total figures.
Our first voting intention because the GE is in in the present day’s Politico Playbook. Labour’s lead sits at 4 factors.
🌹LAB 29% (-6)
🌳CON 25% (-)
🔶 LIB DEM 14% (+2)
➡️ REF UK 18% (+3)
💚 GREEN 8% (+2)
🟡 SNP 3% (-)Modifications with GE 2024 (GB solely)
10-12 September, N = 2,018— Luke Tryl (@LukeTryl) September 13, 2024
Our first voting intention because the GE is in in the present day’s Politico Playbook. Labour’s lead sits at 4 factors.
🌹LAB 29% (-6)
🌳CON 25% (-)
🔶 LIB DEM 14% (+2)
➡️ REF UK 18% (+3)
💚 GREEN 8% (+2)
🟡 SNP 3% (-)Modifications with GE 2024 (GB solely)
10-12 September, N = 2,018
I agree with others who would say the worth of VI as stand alone at this stage isn’t that prime. However with Price range, conferences and new Tory chief arising we needed to have the ability to observe adjustments which is extra helpful.
PA Media has snapped this:
The choice to grant planning permission for what would have been the UK’s first coal mine in 30 years at Whitehaven in Cumbria has been quashed by a excessive courtroom choose.
Approval for the mine was granted by the final authorities in 2022. Labour opposed the choice, and it did not try to defend the decision of the last government in courtroom.
Labour, and Starmer, undergo sharp fall in recognition since election, ballot suggests
Even when Keir Starmer was heading in the right direction earlier this yr to win the election by a landslide, pundits have been saying that, given the variety of “powerful decisions” the federal government must take, it might not take lengthy earlier than it turned unpopular. In the present day the polling agency Ipsos has launched its latest Political Pulse opinion survey and these predictions have turned out to be correct; Labour’s scores have fallen quickly.
Labour continues to be far more in style with voters than the Conservative occasion. However, over the summer time, the variety of folks saying they view Labour, and key figures like Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves, unfavourably has risen considerably.
Listed here are the figures for the Labour occasion.
Listed here are the figures for Starmer.
And listed below are the figures for Reeves.
The Ipsos polling doesn’t embrace voting intention (VI). Asking individuals who they might vote in a common election is reasonably pointless at this stage within the electoral cycle, and polling corporations principally haven’t been publishing VI figures. However some within the Labour occasion could also be alarmed by this snippet in Dan Bloom’s London Playbook for Politico.
A Extra in Widespread ballot shared with Playbook has Labour’s lead down to only 4 (!) factors — with the occasion on 29 %, Tories 25, Reform UK 18 and Lib Dems 14. An Ipsos tracker provides 46 % of voters view Starmer unfavorably — up 8 factors since August. He by no means might count on a lot of a honeymoon.
Ipsos says, at 46%, Starmer’s unfavourability score is his joint highest as Labour chief. The one different time so many individuals have been saying they have been sad together with his efficiency was simply after Labour misplaced the Hartlepool byelection in 2021.
However it isn’t all unhealthy for Labour. Though the Conservative occasion is barely much less unpopular than it was on the time of the final, the Ipsos figures exhibits that its restoration nonetheless has a protracted method to go.
And Starmer has the next web favourability score than any of the 4 Tory management candidates left within the contest (Robert Jenrick, James Cleverly, Kemi Badenoch and Tom Tugendhat).
Commenting on the figures, Keiran Pedley, director of politics at Ipsos, stated:
There are some early warning indicators in these numbers for Keir Starmer and Labour. While the following common election is a number of years away – and perceptions of Labour stay stronger than perceptions of the Conservative Get together – these figures do characterize a pointy drop from these recorded in August.
In his interview on Sky Information this morning, Peter Kyle, the science secretary, stated that he additionally needed a wider change in how social media corporations working, with extra emphasis on merchandise being examined for security earlier than they’re launched. He stated:
I’m attempting to create a scenario the place security is baked in initially of social media merchandise earlier than they land in society, as a result of in the meanwhile, they’re free to land merchandise in society.
We cope with the harms, after which we’re type of retrospectively legislating and regulating.
We have to get to some extent the place there’s extra testing of those merchandise earlier than they make it out into society.
We’re not there but. I’m not there but, however I’m taking steps ahead, and I believe social media corporations can see the method that I and this authorities are taking to make it possible for security is there proper from the outset.
Authorities to make use of On-line Security Act to toughen guidelines forcing social media companies to sort out ‘revenge porn’
Good morning. Keir Starmer is in Washington in the present day the place he’s holding talks within the White Home with President Biden which ought to verify a call which may assist Ukraine considerably in its battle in opposition to Russia. Dan Sabbagh is travelling with him, and right here is his in a single day story.
The important thing assembly will happen late tonight. This weblog could have closed by then, and most of our protection of the Ukraine components of Starmer’s journey shall be on our Ukraine battle dwell weblog, which is right here.
Again within the UK, parliament is now in recess, as a result of the occasion convention season is beginning this weekend (with the Liberal Democrats, in Brighton). The federal government is specializing in an announcement that may toughen the regulation on what it describes as “the sharing of non-consensual intimate pictures” – or ‘“revenge porn”, as it’s extra generally recognized.
“Revenge porn” is already unlawful; it’s an offence below part 66B of the Sexual Offences Act 2003. However in the present day Peter Kyle, the science secretary, is asserting that on-line porn will now be place in probably the most critical class of on-line offence below the On-line Security Act.
Explaining what it will imply in follow, the Division for Science, Innovation and Expertise says in a news release:
The On-line Security Act would require social media companies and search companies to guard their customers from unlawful materials on their websites, with protections attributable to come into drive from spring subsequent yr. Essentially the most critical types of unlawful content material are classed as ‘precedence offences’ which means regulated on-line platforms could have extra duties to proactively take away and cease from showing on their websites.
In the present day’s transfer will imply intimate picture offences are handled as precedence offences below the Act, placing them on the identical footing as public order offences and the sale of weapons and medicines on-line.
If companies fail to adjust to their duties the regulator Ofcom could have sturdy enforcement powers, together with imposing fines that might attain as much as 10% of qualifying worldwide income.
And that is how Kyle defined it in an interview with Sky Information this morning.
The 2 actions that may end result from what I’m doing in the present day is that social media corporations should take motion to forestall any materials going surfing within the first place. They need to show to our regulator Ofcom that they’ve taken the measures – in different phrases, they’re utilizing the algorithms – to guard folks, to not enable content material to go on.
Secondly, if content material does make it onto these platforms, the platform house owners should take motion to take away it swiftly. In the event that they don’t, there shall be very heavy fines consequently.
What I’m attempting to do is transfer away from the very fact the place these corporations are allowed to supply merchandise into our society, harms emerge, after which we cope with the harms. What I’m attempting to do is be certain the security is baked in from the outset, so the harms don’t emerge within the first place.
There’s not a lot within the diary in the present day, however the UK politics information by no means dries. I’m certain we’ll discover a lot to cowl.
If you wish to contact me, please put up a message beneath the road (BTL) or message me on social media. I can’t learn all of the messages BTL, however for those who put “Andrew” in a message aimed toward me, I’m extra prone to see it as a result of I seek for posts containing that phrase.
If you wish to flag one thing up urgently, it’s best to make use of social media. I’m nonetheless utilizing X and I’ll see one thing addressed to @AndrewSparrow in a short time. I’m additionally attempting Bluesky (@andrewsparrowgdn) and Threads (@andrewsparrowtheguardian).
I discover it very useful when readers level out errors, even minor typos (no error is just too small to appropriate). And I discover your questions very attention-grabbing too. I can’t promise to answer to all of them, however I’ll attempt to reply to as many as I can, both BTL or typically within the weblog.
