SOCIAL MEDIA BAN: A CYNICAL PLOY, AN AFFRONT TO FAMILIES AND CHILDREN, AND A BACK DOOR TO DIGITAL ID
Trying to save his political skin Starmer has pulled a rabbit out of his hat: a social media ban on under 16s...
Many understandably concerned parents will be deceived that this is being done for our children, it is not. The corporate media are naturally applauding anything to reduce the reach of alternative platforms and free access to news.
Instead of taking the difficult but more effective course of prevailing on platforms to curb harmful content, the government are introducing a blanket ban which won't even work. As pointed out by one who should know, Telegram founder Pavel Durov, savvy kids will soon find VPN ways round any ban and thereby enter an even darker uncontrolled internet world. When Telegram was banned in Russia 95% of users got round the ban using VPNs.
The father of Molly Russell, who took her own life after viewing harmful content online, accused the government of using a sledgehammer to tackle the problem when what is required is forcing technology companies to abandon dangerous algorithms and predatory design.
The consultation the government conducted was a transparent sham with slanted questions designed to give a veneer of public support to its authoritarian plans. Concerns over depriving children of a fundamental freedom and over effectiveness have been brushed aside.
Two things are going on here.
First the sinking ship of the Labour government is desperately looking for ploys to make itself less unpopular.
Secondly it is trying to engineer a back door for tighter government control over citizens' access to the internet and to slide in Digital ID. Under the proposed legislation adults will have to "prove" their age, whereupon we shall end up with intrusive facial recognition and/or Digital ID.
All this rather than make efforts to moderate content better and let families do the job of safeguarding children, not an authoritarian state. A ban lets lax parents off the hook.
The Workers Party is the party of personal freedom and the family, we would never trust a government which on the one hand claims to be so concerned about children that it will introduce a draconian social media ban, and which on the other presides over, indeed enthusiastically helped instigate, a state system whereby baby Preston was handed over to two perverts to use as their sexual toy and rape to death. Our children are too important to leave their safety to such State and such a government.
ENDS
