How Brexit Could Salvage Free Speech Online

[cronus]

https://heatst.com/uk/how-brexit-could- ... ch-online/

How Brexit Could Salvage Free Speech Online

As Britain’s political and media class begins painfully adjusting to the realities of a world in which Britain is leaving the European Union, a lesser-noticed consequence of the split could be a flowering of free speech.

Among the many other consequences of jettisoning the bureaucracy of Brussels and the power of European courts include the chance to scrap speech restrictions stifling Britain.

Foremost among the laws is the so-called Right to Be Forgotten, enacted by EU Directive C-131/12.

A forthcoming online speech police, announced just weeks ago by the EU Commission, also looks unlikely to have jurisdiction over the British internet.

The Right to be Forgotten rule grants disgruntled people and companies the ability to scrub stories they dislike from the internet if they can convince Google the information therein is “excessive” or “irrelevant”.

Opaque rules mean that the search engine does not have to disclose who makes requests to remove pages, and provide only oblique hints about which results may have been removed.

Stories which have been pulled include a Daily Telegraph report on a woman imprisoned for running a prostitution ring, reports on Norwegian mass killer Anders Breivik, benefits fraud and even news of a murder arrest.

Google alone says that in the first year of the rule it acted on more than 250,000 requests. Other search engines, such as Bing and Yahoo must also abide by the rules.

Campaigners, including the Index on Censorship, have called the regime “deeply problematic”, “flabby” and lacking in transparency.

The second measure which the UK will be able to dodge thanks to the Brexit vote is the so-called “code of conduct” announced just last month.

Without consulting any member countries or voters, the European Commission announced a new deal with Twitter, Facebook, Microsoft and YouTube to scrub contentious comments.

The tech giants committed to getting rid of posts falling foul of the policy within 24 hours.

The policy gave networks themselves the ability to determine what must go, while also forcing them to make decisions more quickly than ever.

Free speech groups dubbed the measures “state censorship” and predicted a “chilling effect” on expression across Europe’s half-billion citizens.

But the looming departure of the UK from the bloc means that there is little incentive for the tech companies to spend time and money enforcing an arduous extra standard on 65 million people.

The UK’s existing, robust laws protecting against hate crime will remain in force, leaving most users to post unharried by self-appointed speech enforcers, and unable to wipe away and inconvenient truths.

(continued)

[Brian Peacock]

The freedom of expression of individuals is not the same freedom of expression of organisations and the media, and yet if the first few pages of search results associate a person or organisation with an error or untruth how is freedom of expression enhanced by allowing it to remain?

[cronus]

The freedom of expression of individuals is not the same freedom of expression of organisations and the media, and yet if the first few pages of search results associate a person or organisation with an error or untruth how is freedom of expression enhanced by allowing it to remain?

Search engines? There should be many and they should all be different. Like in the ol' days of Web 1. The virtual monopoly of the search engine industry by one and half players (Google, Bing) is a invitation for bias...error or untruth. It isn't corrected by 'forgetting laws' but by breaking up the monopoly driven market that is skewing things.

[Brian Peacock]

But, dear Crumpy, we are in this situation precisely because of market forces. In the face of competition the strong have outperformed the weak. What do you want to do now? Regulate in favour weakness and incompetence?

[Scot Dutchy]

As Britain’s political and media class begins painfully adjusting to the realities of a world in which Britain is leaving the European Union, a lesser-noticed consequence of the split could be a flowering of free speech.

That is really jumping the gun but that is what all Brexiters do. Just stop and think Crumpy. It is not going to happen.

[cronus]

Say what you want here but in Germany you will be being watched. And there the censor holds power.

[Meekychuppet]

As Britain’s political and media class begins painfully adjusting to the realities of a world in which Britain is leaving the European Union, a lesser-noticed consequence of the split could be a flowering of free speech.

That is really jumping the gun but that is what all Brexiters do. Just stop and think Crumpy. It is not going to happen.

You mean like Brexit wasn't going to happen?

[Scot Dutchy]

As Britain’s political and media class begins painfully adjusting to the realities of a world in which Britain is leaving the European Union, a lesser-noticed consequence of the split could be a flowering of free speech.

That is really jumping the gun but that is what all Brexiters do. Just stop and think Crumpy. It is not going to happen.

You mean like Brexit wasn't going to happen?

It is not going to happen. Britain cant afford the time. 20 years to change the laws and at least 16 years for new trade agreements. Never mind the expense.

[Meekychuppet]

As Britain’s political and media class begins painfully adjusting to the realities of a world in which Britain is leaving the European Union, a lesser-noticed consequence of the split could be a flowering of free speech.

That is really jumping the gun but that is what all Brexiters do. Just stop and think Crumpy. It is not going to happen.

You mean like Brexit wasn't going to happen?

It is not going to happen. Britain cant afford the time. 20 years to change the laws and at least 16 years for new trade agreements. Never mind the expense.

You're setting yourself up for a fall there.

[Feck]

Yeah, because the only thing stopping UK.gov allowing free speech or actually being honest themselves was That Damned Europe

[Feck]

As for freedom of speech on FB it's simply a numbers game If enough people complain you are toast If 100+ accounts, including 50 new accounts set up on the same day from the same ISP in Lahore, if 19 of those posts claim a picture of your dog is pornographic and 75 of the complaints are from people who cannot even read English, If several of your posts most complained about merely contain direct quotes from Quran and hadith you are STILL toast.
None of that will change just because The UK has decided to throw itself on it's own racist sword and commit financial suicide.

[cronus]

As for freedom of speech on FB it's simply a numbers game If enough people complain you are toast If 100+ accounts, including 50 new accounts set up on the same day from the same ISP in Lahore, if 19 of those posts claim a picture of your dog is pornographic and 75 of the complaints are from people who cannot even read English, If several of your posts most complained about merely contain direct quotes from Quran and hadith you are STILL toast.
None of that will change just because The UK has decided to throw itself on it's own racist sword and commit financial suicide.

Facebook ain't fair therefore leave Facebook. Where is the mystery?

[MrJonno]

Hmm this nation suffers from far too much 'free' speech , where perfectly legitimate for politicians or billionaire paper owners to lie without consequences. 'Free' speech has basically lead to the post rational post fact society we are in

[Meekychuppet]

Hmm this nation suffers from far too much 'free' speech , where perfectly legitimate for politicians or billionaire paper owners to lie without consequences. 'Free' speech has basically lead to the post rational post fact society we are in

That is utter drivel.

[Meekychuppet]

None of that will change just because The UK has decided to throw itself on it's own racist sword and commit financial suicide.

Ah yes, the good old 'everyone who doesn't think and vote like me is a racist' mantra. XC was banging that drum jn Glasgow as well. Bollocks. Total bollocks.