If It’s Not Illegal, What Basis Can There Be For Fines?

They've not given up trying to stop the population from freely discussing things:

Social media business models endangered the public by incentivising the spread of dangerous misinformation after the 2024 Southport murders, MPs have concluded, adding that current online safety laws have “major holes”.“It’s clear that the Online Safety Act [OSA] just isn’t up to scratch,” said Chi Onwurah, the committee chair, after a seven-month inquiry. “The government needs to go further to tackle the pervasive spread of misinformation that causes harm but doesn’t cross the line into illegality. Social media companies are not just neutral platforms but actively curate what you see online, and they must be held accountable.”

Accountability is a good thing, but MPs seem to only regard it as such in other people. 

The committee called for fines of at least £18m if platforms do not set out how they will tackle significant harms that derive from content promoted by their recommendation systems even if it is not illegal.

I sincerely hope the big social media platforms treat this ridiculous overreach by these arrogant little pipsqueaks with the contempt it deserves. 

Understandably, It's Enough To Put One Off One's Taxpayer-Subsidised Sausages...

Bertin has noticed that her desire to talk frequently and openly about extreme pornography is not shared by all her Westminster colleagues. “I’ve definitely seen people swerve at lunch, not wanting to sit next to me for fear of what they’re going to hear coming from my mouth,” she told fellow delegates at the launch meeting of her pornography taskforce this week, prompting a flutter of sympathetic laughter.

The jokes just write themselves with this one, don’t they? 

Since being appointed by the former prime minister Rishi Sunak to lead an independent review into the regulation of online pornography in December 2023, Bertin has observed how a double taboo has made most politicians extremely reluctant to engage. Some simply find the subject hugely embarrassing; others stay silent because they do not wish to appear prudish by criticising the proliferation of extreme and often illegal pornographic material online.

And some are just a little too enthusiastic about the subject… 

The government needs urgently to appoint a minister for porn, she recommends, to ensure that the issue gets the attention it deserves, rather than being passed reluctantly between the Home Office and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.

I recommend a hard-drive check for anyone who throws his/her hat in the ring for this role!