Online safety, digital surveillance and the last dying breaths of our right to privacy... This week in Common Ground I write about age assurance tech as a trogan horse for all our rights... bit.ly/3X7feX9

Fantastic event on next Tuesday for those willing or able to travel to London Join writers, actors and campaigners to discuss the Hack, phone hacking, and what's next for press reform @hackedoff.bsky.social www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-hack-w...

We were waiting for this. AI developers got a nod from the UK courts on whether their AI models infringe copyrighted work. Recently, a judge threw out a passing off claim advanced by Getty Images against AI developer Stability. How do you feel about this? bit.ly/49pvBpn #AI #Copyright #AINews

We finally have the last edition of the Hack, out now! Thanks for those of you who've gone on the journey with our companion piece to ITV's the Hack. It's been a fun ride, and we know that a better media is possible @hackedoff.bsky.social @mediareformuk.bsky.social youtu.be/KnJNLrJC5Yc

What u find interesting about the Pete Hesgeth new pentagon access guidelines for journalists is the mislaid notion that people can contract our of their constitutional rights... www.google.com/amp/s/www.bb...

Divestment in quality media intentional or accidental? The stats support more effectiveness for brands and advertisers... So let's stop chasing eyeballs, clicks, impressions and build a digital economy that doesn't rely on exploitation. How about investing in ethical accountable media? #awc

The fight for trustworthy and accountable journalism found a new advocate in... the Pope? 😅 www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Either, the Government will do nothing and the cycle of scandal and cosmetic reform will repeat. Press disinformation, intrusion and other abuses will go on, day to day, destroying peoples’ lives, distorting elections and misleading the public, but making little impact on the national policy agenda

How is phone hacking connected to one of the most notorious unsolved murders in Britain? Episode 2 of #afterthehack is out now. If you're watching the Hack on ITV 9pm, this is the best companion podcast for all the insights, hot takes and more. youtu.be/hN1NgxsJbxw

Really powerful words from Hugh Grant on the last 12 years of political failure, including the current Government, for victims of press abuse. If we want a better media we need this collusion to end.

At the Labour Party conference this week advocating for quick wins and ready made solutions for a better media with @hackedoff.bsky.social @mediareformuk.bsky.social and @pressjustice.bsky.social

Started watching #theHack on ITV and want more? 'After the Hack', our recap show with @bylinetimes.bsky.social is now out! Weekly episodes on the real politics and behind the scenes goss of the phone hacking scandal, plus what action you can take to build a better media youtu.be/VlCYtc_IGoU?...

It's lack of independence, discretion to interpret public interest and blended remit over content and market controls that allows US agencies like the Federal Communications Commission to become ideologically captured by Commissioners at the top #jimmykimmel

Just to be blunt, if you want Wired and 404 and The Verge to employ reporters who understand the memes on bullet casings and can connect them to gaming culture while having the legal and support resources to deal with waves of harassment when we do it… you have to subscribe and pay for the work

Lucy Connolly and Graham Linehan are the latest high profile cases of speech being policed online. Posting hateful content and inciting violence against others without early intervention can fuel a pattern of behaviour which gives them the confidence to continue to post.

scarce and inconsistent policing of hateful and abusive content online has reduced that risk and emboldened people to push the boundaries further. Lack of enforcement online has created a culture of illegality.

Spoke too soon Nepal ban is lifted after tragedy during public protests www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

In case you missed it Nepal just shut down access to 26 major platforms, including Meta and X for failing to meet new legal requirements. The age of platform sovereignty is ending. Global connectivity will be superseded by physical borders.

The House of Lords Communications Committee released a sobering report on #medialiteracy painting a picture of a nation in a literacy crisis. However the recommendations proposed are all over the place

🇬🇧🗞🔥🕵️ I wrote a guest post at @lexiekk.bsky.social's Common Ground newsletter, about six character profiles involved in misinformation and manipulation patterns surrounding the UK Southport-spinoff summer riots of 2024, and ideas for systemic-level mitigation measures. #platforms #OSINT #SOCMINT

Last week I broke down how Big Tech spent 25 years dodging regulatory scrutiny with a simple playbook and turned a blind eye to illegal behaviour of its users online. This week's focus is the news publishers who became the catalyst for change. bit.ly/3G6Xztw

💭 "Identifying who is causing harm is less difficult in our contemporary centralised internet where there are fewer upstream players and many have backdoor arrangements with law enforcement." bit.ly/3TiWHoy

🚨 The inconvenient truth about social media age bans 🚨 Everyone's rushing to "protect" children by banning them from social media. Australia, Texas, Florida—it feels obvious, right? But these bans might actually make the internet LESS safe for everyone. bit.ly/4kjpPYV

💡 If news publishers no longer see the value in being indexed and ranked in search results, is there a world in which they might voluntarily withdraw from search engines like Google entirely? bit.ly/3FdYEPY

Great piece from @publicinterestnews.org.uk on Local Democracy Reporting Scheme and what #BBC could do to improve the scheme so it supports accountable independent local journalism www.publicinterestnews.org.uk/post/indie-n...

Things I like about the Davie speech: -recognition of the trust crisis, news alienation and audience decline -recognition of the existential threat disinfo poses www.theguardian.com/media/2025/m...

💡 The subtle art of silencing doesn't need book burnings in the 21st century. It works through bureaucratic whispers, financial pressure, and systemic nudges. We need to move beyond defensive trench warfare to proactively reshape what free expression should mean. bit.ly/4deURhH

5 days out from the extended deadline for Tik Tok to divest it's US business. Trump has suggested he's willing to extend again, this is an example of the not so subtle ways the state acts on our right to freedom of expression indirectly. I'm writing more about this this week.

Fresh from the Cambridge Disinformation Summit 2025! 🧠 The big takeaway? Disinformation has evolved to unprecedented scale and sophistication. Current solutions mostly just monitor or expose—but we need to address the SOURCE. bit.ly/4k6DdPo

Had a lot of fun chatting to coop news about cooperative media and the changing face of our info ecosystem. Coops are a great way to think about post-state media and info delivery for democratic communities. Lots of great examples out there. www.thenews.coop/can-co-ops-p...

Google and Meta, the owner of Facebook, accounted for at least half of the £43bn spent on advertising in the UK last year, according to new research

Disinformation has no single fix – agreed participants attending #ThomsonTalks during #CambridgeDisinformationSummit2025. The path forward lies in clearer communication, shared responsibility & cross-sector collaboration. www.youtube.com/watch?v=S57M... @jbs.cam.ac.uk

OSA protections for publishers can't come soon enough! Platforms cannot shadow ban or remove accounts of regulated news publishers, and must expedite restoration of those accounts with clear and transparent processes

Matthew Eltringham, Senior Advisor, Editorial Policy "The BBC takes a principles based approach to using Ai in journalism... bar a few exemptions we wouldn't use Ai to create content... We use Ai assistedly rather than directly" #Aijounralism #Aiethics

Key takeaways from our AI in newsrooms best practice guidance, launching today *Always use human editorial oversight *NB Ai can generate inaccuracy *Avoid depicting real people or events *Be transparent with Ai use *Disclose how you use Ai *Avoid inputting confidential data #AIjournalism

The #Childrenscommissioner today calling for AI nudification to be strictly regulated because of growing prevalence of this tech harming children, the report suggests this tech isn't illegal, I don't think this is quite right... www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/resource/chi...

This kind of soft political interference in editorial independence is not unique to the US, in the UK the SoS has similar powers to intervene in media mergers under the Enterprise Act 2002--this was most recently exercised during the sale of the Telegraph to Redbird IMI...

Ofcom has now laid Codes before Parliament for approval, platforms have till 24 July to conduct risk assessments as part of compliance, there are 40 new measures listed. This is going to keep policy and compliance busy for the next 13 weeks.

🔴‘Total Information Collapse’ and the Tribunal of Truth Peter Jukes, Co-Founder and Executive Editor of Byline Times, on the urgent need for media accuracy and why joining Impress, the independent press regulator, is the best way for us to uphold those values bylinetimes.com/2025/04/24/t...

So #openai are launching an advisory committee full of human rights heavyweights to steer it back a rights orientation due to concerns re its commercial activity. Lots of criticism vis a vis window dressing in the context of harm about it's ownership and product. Here's what I find interesting...

As more journalists go freelance they lose the protections and resources offered by newsrooms (not least job insecurity); this creates ethical and liability dilemmas in news gathering and publication. pressgazette.co.uk/media-audien...

My key takeaway here is that people *want* human generated stories, even if they can't tell the difference when put to the test. This makes labelling content as AI generated even more important. Give people autonomy over their media choices! theconversation.com/people-say-t...

Tackling the climate crisis starts with us having a common understanding of the problem and the solutions; accountable news providers perform that sense making by acting in the public interest, getting their facts rights and choosing to be accountable to readers through independent oversight

On #earthday one of the things you can do to stop the spread of climate mis and disinformation is choose to use regulated news

Only 20% of the public are accessing regulated climate news--this means most people can't hold their news sources to account when they get the facts wrong or push irresponsible agendas

This report is just a first little step but glad to be one of the authors. Tldr we need to regulated climate disinformation the way we regulate other forms of media malpractice.

#UKSupremeCourt today rules that the legal definition of a woman is based on biological sex, and that sex as defined in the Equalities Act 2010 is binary (no word on intersex people); giving 'protection' to single sex spaces and right to exclude trans, non-binary and intersex people...

The #Hillsborough tragedy 36 years ago today was a devastating event that united a community and sparked a long and difficult pursuit of justice for the courageous individuals affected. Media bias and distortion of the truth impeded justice at the time (very much still relevant today)

Come along and bring those challenging questions and provocations to our panel of experts that will be exploring the ethics of using AI in newsrooms

We have robust standards for how journalists should engage with and write stories about children, aiming to affirm children's right to representation carefully balanced against their wellbeing in the face of public scrutiny.