The saga of the UK’s contact tracing app has barely begun but already it is fraught with problems. Technical problems – the app barely works on iPhones, for example, and communication between iPhones requires someone with an Android phone to be in close proximity – are just the start of it. Continue reading
The International Forum for Responsible Media Blog
Tag: Paul Bernal (Page 1 of 4)
My new book, the Internet, Warts and All was published in August. The subtitle – Free Speech, Privacy and Truth – gives and indication of its subject matter and scope: this is a wide-ranging, broad-brush book covering a great variety of different subjects, from some of the theoretical background to free speech, privacy and truth to specific subjects – there’s a chapter on surveillance, another on trolling, and one whose main subject is fake news. Continue reading
As the debate over internet intermediary liabilities has rumbled on over the last few years – sometimes quietly, sometimes quite furiously – one group has been the subject of a special squeeze: the public. The role of intermediaries, and in particular search engines and social media services, has been questioned in a number of areas with qualitatively different issues, but in almost all of them similar dynamics exist: lobbyists, governments and the intermediaries fight for their respective corners, and the interests of the public, of the ordinary internet user, are either ignored or minimised. Continue reading
You might not have noticed thanks to world events, but the UK parliament recently approved the government’s so-called Snooper’s Charter and it will soon become law. This nickname for the Investigatory Powers Bill is well earned. Continue reading
When Jeremy Corbyn launched his ‘Digital Democracy Manifesto’ at the end of August, he may not have inspired, but he was at least attempting to get to grips with something that really matters: how governments should deal with the internet. Continue reading
While the Labour Party recently launched their Digital Democracy Manifesto with as much fanfare as they could muster, the reaction to it could be safely described in social media terms as “meh”. There was derision from those who deride everything Corbyn says, and very little from the rest of the media, who moved on to more important things such as after work drinks and JK Rowling’s spat with Corbyn’s Twitter followers. Continue reading
The new campaign to ‘Reclaim the Internet‘, to ‘take a stand against online abuse’ was launched yesterday – and it could be a really important campaign. The scale and nature of abuse online is appalling – and it is good to see that the campaign does not focus on just one kind of abuse, instead talking about ‘misogyny, sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia’ and more. Continue reading
David Cameron’s first reaction to the questions about his family’s involvement with the Mossack Fonseca leaks was that it was a ‘private matter’ – something that was greeted with a chorus of disapproval from his political opponents and large sections of both the social and ‘traditional’ media. Continue reading
The United Kingdom Parliament is currently in the pre-legislative scrutiny phase of a new Investigatory Powers Bill, which aims to “consolidate existing legislation and ensure the powers in the Bill are fit for the digital age”. It is fair to sat this Bill is controversial with strong views being expressed by both critics and supporters of the Bill. Against this backdrop it is important to cut through the rhetoric and get to the heart of the Bill and to examine what it will do and what it will mean in terms of the legal framework for British citizens, and indeed for those overseas. Continue reading
The so-called ‘Labour Purge’ has many disturbing elements – from the motivations behind those who might ‘need’ to be purged to the motivations of those who want to purge them – but there is one aspect that appeared yesterday that seems to have been largely ignored: the attitude to people’s privacy. Continue reading
Recent Judgments
© 2023 Inforrm's Blog
Theme by Anders Norén — Up ↑