Starmer Announces Yet More Censorship
Even more censorship is on the way. The Government has announced plans to force AI chatbots to comply with malicious communications laws – and to give itself Orwellian powers to bring in yet more speech restrictions without Parliamentary oversight. Toby writes about the moves in the Telegraph.
The Government intends to bring forward amendments of its own to the schools Bill that will supposedly close a loophole in the Online Safety Act to make sure AI chatbots comply with Britain’s draconian censorship laws. That will mean that if Grok says something in response to a user prompt that breaches, say, the Malicious Communications Act 1988, which was designed to protect women from obscene phone calls, Ofcom can fine its parent company £18 million or 10% of its annual global turnover. Whichever is the highest.
This will be the death knell of Britain’s burgeoning AI sector, particularly as chatbots become more autonomous. What tech entrepreneur will risk setting up an AI company in the UK, knowing that if a chatbot shares an anti-immigration meme or misgenders a trans person, it could mean a swingeing fine?
Indeed, I wouldn’t be surprised if xAI, along with OpenAI and Anthropic, decide to withdraw access to their chatbots from UK residents. At the very least, we’ll be saddled with lobotomised versions that trot out progressive bromides whenever they’re asked a political question.
In addition, the Government has said it will pass a new law to stop children sending or receiving nude images. Needless to say, that’s already a criminal offence under the Protection of Children Act 1978, so what does the Government have in mind?
It has not said, but I fear it means embedding surveillance software in every smartphone to enable the authorities to monitor users’ activity, no doubt accompanied by mandatory digital ID so no one will be able to hide. Not even the People’s Republic of China does that.
The Government unveiled some other Orwellian measures, but rather than bring them in as revisions to the schools Bill, it will put through amendments that will enable it to make further changes to Britain’s censorship regime via secondary legislation, i.e., it will grant itself sweeping Henry VIII powers.
It’s worth bearing in mind that secondary legislation cannot be amended and allows little time for debate. The Government’s excessive reliance on secondary legislation has been criticised by the House of Lords Constitution Committee and the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee.
One piece of legislation – the Data (Use and Access) Bill – contains 87 Henry VIII powers. So what I hoped would be a sensible measure to make the internet a less regulated space for grown-ups has been used as an excuse to unveil a censors’ charter.
Don’t be fooled by Sir Keir Starmer’s about-turn on postponing local elections. His authoritarian instincts are undimmed.
Worth reading in full.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
I’ve read somewhere this morning that, if you ask a chat bot to summarise a situation in the news it will always give you a left-leaning answer.
Apparently, this is a direct result of the fact that the ‘right-wing’ press is behind a paywall, whilst the Guardian is not, and this inevitably must skew the result when it goes looking for source material from the news.
We all know the saying: “garbage in, garbage out”.
Well spotted! Plus also it is probably programmed to avoid publications like this one and limit itself to a short list of “trusted” (and free!) news sources when shaping its response.
I’ve read that too, but months and months ago!
This too shall pass.
If the electorate has gained its senses and returns a Reform UK Government and, of course, of Reform UK lives up to its promises and passes a Great Reform Bill to ditch the Marxist-Socialist “experiment” that has been running since 1945.
No, his instincts are definitely Dhimmed
A clumsily written piece from the Telegraph. Secondary legislation means Statutory Instruments – also known as ‘regulations’ – and are made in their hundreds every year. Alarming? Not really given that is you want to close a motorway for works you need an SI to do so. Everywhere else on the public highway it is done with a Temporary Traffic Management Order. Holding an air show? Yes, you need an SI for that too. The aricle stated that ‘secondary legislation cannot be amended’ – well it can of course by another SI or an Act but I think the point trying to be made is that an SI does not have the same process that it takes to make an Act of Parliament which is why they are considered secondary legislation and should an Act contain something that contradicts and SI then the Act wins. Generally they go through on a positive process but if something is contentious then an SI can be subject to a vote, but then our democracy averse failed PM wants to avoid votes if he can. An SI does not pass through the Lords either for the reason that it is considered secondary legislation. The… Read more »
In a previous post some time ago, I made exactly this same point, which is that it doesn’t really matter what we try to do to outsmart the establishment blob – they’ll find a way to turn it around against us. And that is a perfect example.
The problem is the establishment blob itself. Anyone – Farage, Lowe – who wants to actually change the course of things will need to take a sledgehammer to the entire establishment bureaucracy. Anything else will be futile tinkering around the edges or crashing into a brick wall.
Contact Argentina for advice!
If “right wing” press (ie different opinions) are behind paywalls, thereby denying access to AI bots, can we crowdfund access for the AI bots in some way to even up the playing field?
Nice idea, and I would personally donate, but how does one pay an AI? And in turn how does an AI subscribe to a news site like the Telegraph?
ChatGPT, for example, only has access to publicly available information, so the Times or the Telegraph would have to make all its content free for Chat to view it. What it does have on the other hand is access to the headlines and summaries that are free to view in front of the paywall… so it may take into account the sensationalist headline, but miss all the nuance and opinion.
I cannot abide how left leaning and woke AI models are. I am self-hosting my own LLM and training it to a philosophical world view that would probably resonate with readers of Daily Sceptic. Censor that Starmer, you twit.
Ok so it’s the usual ridiculous labour fascism stoopid stuff, but frankly there’s so much worse going on, I really couldn’t give a sh!t.
I guess one day soon all the social media companies will move their operations out of the UK. Then they can’t be sued and can tell the British censorship laws to take a running jump. The British government have already tried to shut down one small media company in the US who simply turned round and said we are a US based company and do not operate under the laws of a foreign power, so bugger off. If they have no offices in the UK they can’t be sued by HMG.
Hear, hear.
I guess this was the purpose of his recent trip to China ….. further instructions on how to create a Communist Surveillance State.
The man is a lawyer. He sees a legal solution to every problem. Freedom doesn’t come into it.
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”——-CS Lewis. The Omnipotent Busy Bodies now run the show in the UK and we are arresting thousands every year for something they SAID. Many more than in Russia and China. But the Chief Busy Body (Starmer) is not content with that and wants to arrest thousands more—-for WORDS. ——-Maybe he will empty a few more prisons of real criminals to make room for those arrested by the Thought and Opinion Police. Or maybe he has plans to build a few gulags.
but, but, but we must “protect the children”, even though they will suffer all the censorship when they grow up and we leave them the United Kingdom of North Korea.