Downing Street has said it fully supports a ban on X if Ofcom decides to do so. Letting the two-tier watchdog do the dirty work…
Starmer’s spokesman said a at the Lobby briefing of journalists this morning:
“Ofcom has a back stop power to apply to the courts to block services in the UK where they refuse to uphold our law. If Ofcom deems that to be necessary, they will have our full support.”
The PM’s spokesman added that the UK is committed to free speech in response to US Republican congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna warning she would “sanction not only Starmer, but Britain as a whole” if he bans X. There’s no chance of him banning ChatGPT, he’d have to shut down half of Whitehall…
Business Secretary Peter Kyle told Times Radio that the government is considering banning X:
“Yes, of course. We gave these powers to Ofcom and not giving them the powers to Ofcom with the proviso that they will never be used. We gave very strident powers to Ofcom, which is our independent regulator, with very specific legal obligations to and the powers to use them in certain circumstances. So the law doesn’t allow for these sorts of powers to be used in certain circumstances.”