The UK chooses regulation by press release.
PLUS: a clever way to get through to the Russian public about what is happening in Ukraine.
BY:
Salvatore Nicci
Technology Analyst / Reporter
PROJECT COUNSEL MEDIA
2 March 2022 (Paris, France) – As we have noted in numerous posts: the UK’s Online Harms Bill began as a pretty sensible and narrowly defined effort to solve one kind of problem: make a list of specific kinds of harmful content, and create an obligation for platform companies to make reasonable best efforts to minimise them.
Unfortunately it’s now become a grab bag of hobbyhorses and every random terrible Internet regulation idea from the last decade.
The latest idea is that somehow if the Internet wasn’t anonymous, no one would behave badly, and so big Internet platforms need to give everyone an option to verify their identity, and an option to hide content from people who aren’t verified. This is a bizarre overreach – the UK wants YouTube offer people in Vietnam, Argentina and New Zealand an option to upload passports. Yet since this of course has to be optional, no one will actually do it, so the switch to turn off unverified content will just hide everything and be completely useless. Meanwhile, there have been any number of studies in the last few years demonstrating that the vast majority of problematic accounts are not anonymous anyway.
This is regulation by press release – and, frankly, despite our cynicism over tech reguation, we really expected the UK to do better.
Even if Putin’s hold on power is precarious as many think, he still seems to controlling media in Russia and convincing Russians there is not a war going on in Ukraine, and in fact that the whole world is conspiring against them. So some are coming uo with some clever alternatives. How? Read on.
Both those in Russia and those outside have been using Google maps and the Yandex browser map function (Yandex is Russia’s government approved web browser engine) and finding Russian restaurants, shops, and business premises and leaving 5 ⭐️ reviews so as not to affect their business or search ranking, and so that it isn’t the fault of the shop or business. But then they are passing this message. It tells them what Putin is doing, and so far is evading his media censorship:
Было хорошо! Однако, Путин испортил нам настроение, вторгшись в Украину. Восстаньте против своего диктатора, прекратите убивать невинных людей! Ваше правительство лжет вам. Восстаньте!
TRANSLATION: Your business is nice! However, Putin spoiled our mood by invading Ukraine. Rise up against your dictator, stop killing innocent people! Your government is lying to you. Arise!
They are expanding across all businesses and tourist attractions that allow reviews. Our contacts inside Russia says it’s working. Long-term effect? Who knows but where there is a will there is a way.
