Peter Kyle threatened to shut down X on Newsnight last night. This is where it has go to…
Ofcom rules requiring age verification for explicit content – with the onus on platforms – came into force at midnight. A gift to scammers and a massive threat to privacy which can be avoided by anyone tech-savvy enough to download a VPN…
In a bizarre conversation on Newsnight Paddy O’Connell offered to “go on X now, we can look on it together and I can find some porn” for Kyle and pressed the Science Secretary on whether he could shut down the platform if it didn’t comply with new requirements to withhold pornographic content from children:
“Britain has the power to shut down any platform.”
Onerous restrictions moving responsibility for content on platforms to the companies that run them are already threatening access to Wikipedia. If Ofcom and Labour keeps going the UK will end up a privacy-free digital desert…
Kyle promised to platforms who did not follow Ofcom strictures “we will go after you” and added “access to the British society and economy is a privilege and not a right.” To be controlled by Labour from now on…
Despite The Guardian quitting Musk’s X in a tantrum last year it is still paying the company to the tune of thousands of pounds. Nice of them…
Co-conspirators will remember the paper declaring: “The US presidential election campaign served only to underline what we have considered for a long time: that X is a toxic media platform and that its owner, Elon Musk, has been able to use its influence to shape political discourse.” Its bio on X says: “This account has been archived.” Money is still changing hands however…
Seeing as the account still has a gold tick for a verified organisation and its political editor Pippa Crerar has an affiliate account with the little Guardian logo next to her name the paper is still subscribed as a Full Access verified organisation. Price tag attached to that…
The Guardian has to pay for Crerar’s affiliate account along with some others such as live blogger Graeme Wearden – that brings the total bill for seven months of having “quit” X to upwards of either £7,350 or £8,680 depending on whether the bill is paid monthly or annually. Tidy sum…
Hilariously every author page on the website features a link to the individual’s X account. In addition Guardian journalists are still highly active on X which everyone has returned to with tails between legs after saying they would be over on Bluesky. Crerar last posted on the alternative platform nine days ago. The pol ed has tweeted over twenty times since then…
New analysis from the Reuters Institute today shows that X has become politically neutral over the past three years. As co-conspirators will remember it used to be a left-wing sneering cesspit…
A wide gamut of countries were selected:
In the UK the situation was even worse in 2021:
Establishment commentators and journalists have of course been complaining about this due to the fact their smug views now receive proportionally less lavish praise. Some decamped to Bluesky – then came straight back…
No doubt this will be pitched by those same figures as Musk dragging the platform to the right. Nature is healing…
After an interminable 68 days of silence and diligent coverage by Guido, Jon Sopel has finally returned to Bluesky. The podcaster said he was leaving Musk’s X for good before using it constantly while ignoring his “new address” at the progressive Bluesky platform…
Anguished Bluesky users tagged Sopel and commented on his absence. He finally returned to the platform on 7 March. Sadly this was only to regurgitate copy from Musk’s X with a mundane copy and pasted post promoting a livestream of his podcast to his fans. The post received a measly ten re-blues. The podcaster was even chastised on the platform by a disappointed fan…
To add insult to injury Sopel has tweeted on Musk’s X a whopping 16 times since that lone Bluesky post, including with original thoughts such as reflections on his “obsession” with hand sanitisers. Bluesky users may not be placated for long if they realise they are missing out on this kind of insight…
Centrist dad Jon Sopel declared to much fanfare in November last year that he would be leaving X for Bluesky, returning to Musk’s platform “occasionally.” 17 hours later he tweeted again and by December was doing so four times more often than he was Bluesky-ing…
Now it falls to Guido to report on Bluesky users’ agony as Sopel abandons the fledgling platform for an entire month. The last time Sopel posted there was to commemorate Jimmy Carter back in 2024…
Guido hears starved Bluesky users are tearing their hair out with 30 days having passed without hearing from the News Agents host – all while Sopel froths constantly on Musk’s X. Sopel has tweeted his deep thoughts and clips a devastating 12 times in the same period…
The News Agents presenters are on tour with their live analysis and charging £45 per ticket for a February show in Birmingham’s Symphony Hall. No doubt tens of anguished Bluesky users will plead with Sopel for him to return to the platform…
Guido sometimes took to popping over to Bluesky to see what centrist dad Jon Sopel had been posting since he declared he would be leaving X back in November. As it turns out that was pointless because his exodus lasted less than 24 hours and he was posting more on X than Bluesky within about two weeks…
Now Guido can report that Sopel has given up on the progressive platform altogether. He last posted there way back in 2024…
Sopel hasn’t posted at all on Bluesky since Jimmy Carter died last year. He’s meanwhile posted on X six times in 2025. Looks like he’s back with his X long term then…
Peter Mandelson has finally said sorry for believing Jeffrey Epstein over the paedophile’s victims. He told BBC Newsnight:
“Yesterday, I did not want to be held responsible for his crimes of which I was ignorant, not indifferent, because of the lies he told me and so many others. I was wrong to believe him following his conviction and to continue my association with him afterwards. I apologise unequivocally for doing so to the women and girls who suffered. I was never culpable or complicit in his crimes. Like everyone else I learned the actual truth about him after his death. But his victims did know what he was doing, their voices were not heard and I am sorry I was amongst those who believed him over them.”
