"Evidence based policy making"

It was a privilege to be invited to the preview screening of "Molly Vs the Machines" last night. It's a brilliant, powerful film - and a tough watch on a number of levels. Look out for it: it'll be released in early March and on Channel 4 soon after.

Minister of State Alex Norris tells the BBC he won't personally come off X because it's important for communicating with voters. None of his tweets for the last month has more than 1000 views.

Today asks "is it arbitrary to crack down on just this one" - Grok + intimate images This is unlawful content being facilitated and coproduced by a major platform with significant reach (6-7 million a day, up to 19m a month). Is there a similarly egregious case with as much reach? If so, sct?

Why we won't be using X anymore ⬇️

Government is developing a more realistic view of X's reach than last week: up to 5 million people use it as a significant news source. (About a million 2-3% say it is their main source). It had 19m users a month, 7 million a day, using it for an average of 6 minutes/day May 2025. But falling fast

@ofcom.bsky.social has launched an investigation into X. What happens next? Here's our expert legal adviser, Prof Lorna Woods OBE, on exactly that question. #onlinesafetyact www.onlinesafetyact.net/analysis/ofc...

💯

Given everything going on with X and Grok, this seems like a frankly bizarre time to propose a social media ban for under 16s. The wonderful thing about government is that you can intervene much further up the chain. www.theguardian.com/media/2026/j...

Wild that the Conservatives - who took *seven years* to get the #onlinesafetyact into law - are this morning telling us all we've "sleepwalked" into a social media crisis amongst children. #r4today

Brilliant. Also: no Ministerial departments tells its own story.

It's great to see Kendall calling on "all platforms operating in the UK to abide by @ofcom.bsky.social's new guidance on tackling #vawg online" and that, if they don't, she is "prepared to go further". But a) they won't (it's not enforceable); and b) she could "go further" immediately. 1/

Unlike its members this group never gets old go.bsky.app/B5X2Tsg

Dame Caroline Dinenage tells the BBC that "there are doubts as to whether the #onlinesafetyact actually has the power to regulate functionality." It does. But @ofcom.bsky.social chose not to use it - writing a set of weak codes and promising further iterations idc. 1/ www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The Government is still pointing the finger at @ofcom.bsky.social to use all its powers against X. The regulator has been silent on this since Monday. And even "swift" action will take weeks. Meanwhile, the Govt could have done this all on its own today. 👇🏻 www.onlinesafetyact.net/analysis/let...

Musk now encouraging people to pay to make CSAM.

If a new app was produced which had, as its core features, the generation of sexual deep fake images of children and calls for a violent global far-right revolution, then not only would it be swiftly banned, but you wouldn't have a single mainstream politician willing to associate themselves with it

Enough is enough. 👇🏻

Yes. This. 👇🏻

Finally a sense that something will be done in the UK about the deepfake X porn. www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...

THE MACHINE - BY DESIGN - IS ALLOWING PEOPLE TO REMOVE WOMEN'S CLOTHING WITHOUT THEIR CONSENT AND TO MAKE CSAM. How are we at 'good sides to it too, you know?'?

💯 this from @lewisgoodall.com @newsagents.bsky.social "The calculation [the Government] has made is that the dignity of potentially thousands, if not more, of women, girls, children is a price worth paying not to piss off Trump and Musk." #vawg #onlinesafetyact www.globalplayer.com/podcasts/epi...

Yesterday the PM's official spokesperson said "all options are on the table" in relation to action on X. Today, maybe he could chose one of them. #onlinesafetyact news.sky.com/story/illega...

Commons women and equalities committee to stop using X amid AI-altered images row

A reminder of the type of vital content placed on X by government departments and the essential national interest served by retaining an audience there.

This - from a Government that published its #vawg strategy just before Christmas and promised a "whole government" approach to tackling it - is completely unacceptable.

Anyone would think from this bureaucratic, word salad of an update from @ofcom.bsky.social that the provider to whom they are "working towards issuing a provisional decision shortly" may have committed some minor transgressions and there was little need for speed in the subsequent investigation. 1/2

🆕Must-read analysis from our expert legal adviser, Prof Lorna Woods OBE, on #grok, criminal offences, the civil law and the #onlinesafetyact ⬇️ www.onlinesafetyact.net/analysis/gro...

This. 🤡👇 www.ft.com/content/ad94...

If there is an argument then this is the argument. But lol I can’t find where this obviously false stat is coming from. And if the government does believe more than half the families in the UK are using it as their primary news source then woah maybe time to up the scrutiny of it!

Embodies the underlying weirdness of this government - the minister in question hasn't tweeted for *OVER A YEAR* because the site is a cesspit.

I mean, at this point a "counter narrative" on X is an image of a fully clothed child

Ofcom has made "urgent contact" to understand what steps they have taken to comply with their legal duties to protect users. As Lizzie Dearden notes, the site is itself generating at vast scale + pace images that are often v likely to be unlawful (non-consensual pictures stripping women of clothes)

This. 👇🏻

Well. A very well-timed question from the @libdems.org.uk Lord Pack today in @houseoflords.parliament.uk today. 👇

💔 www.theguardian.com/music/2025/n...

The average age of death for a homeless person is just 44. In 2023, 4 lives were lost every single day. This should never be acceptable. Together, we can change it. Help spread the word. 👉 www.connection-at-stmartins.org.uk/dyingforconn... #DyingForConnection

The classic government solution of the last 20 years: give it to big Lou til the end of the parliament

*looks at 1st bulletpoint* *looks at 5th bulletpoint* *looks at 1st bulletpoint* *looks at 5th bulletpoint* *looks at 1st bulletpoint* *looks at 5th bulletpoint*

What’s the odds on “a major social network has an antisemitic AI built into it” being raised by lobby with PM’s spokesperson today? A special DCMS committee? Ofcom launching an emergency investigation? Seems it’s so hard to comprehend that people will just focus on more manageable screaming at BBC.

Delighted to write for @civilserviceworld.bsky.social on why Labour's promises on #onlinesafety in opposition have yet to be delivered in Govt and why a fundamental conflict of interest at the heart of #DSIT is part of the problem. ⬇️ #onlinesafetyact www.civilserviceworld.com/news/article...

The Cure *and* The Cult. 1985, happy days. #totp

🚨 We've signed the letter reported in @thetimes.com on the #onlinesafetyact & #DMCC "If the home country of the most powerful tech firms in the world can negotiate away regulator frameworks created by our sovereign parliament, then what is left of our democracy?" ⬇️ www.thetimes.com/article/02e9...

It was fab to speak to @parentzone.bsky.social CEO Vicki Shotbolt on the #TechShock podcast about the #onlinesafetyact, where it's at, where it's likely to go next and what the fab civil society orgs I work with via the @osanetwork.bsky.social care about most. Listen here. 👇🏻 shorturl.at/etvve

Guy in an electric wheelchair passed me as I returned home from buying the paper, easily crossing roads with dropped pavements, and just thought this is the result of a lot of work and regulation by the public sector. Which you'll rarely read about.

Just so we’re all clear, the Supreme Court *expressly ruled* that the president cannot fire FTC commissioners without cause in 1935’s Humphrey’s Executor. Trump’s action here is brazenly illegal under any interpretation of the law as it stands. www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...

What @ginasue.bsky.social says. And this goes for all those working on #onlinesafety policy in civil society too. 👇🏻

🔴Starmer AI advisor has financial interests in almost 500 tech firms “The decision to withhold hundreds of declared interests from public scrutiny raises serious questions about whether it is robustly managing these potential conflicts.” New on DfS: democracyforsale.substack.com/p/revealed-s...

Starmer and Kyle's parroting of Silicon Valley PR is every bit as toe-curling as Sunak's cringe-making "interview" of Elon Musk during the UK's deeply misguided AI Summit just 18 months ago. It's wild to watch an entire new government swallow the same bullshit, and use it to do even more damage.

💯 this from John Naughton. 👇🏻 www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...?