The Government is continuing to have a hard time getting their ludicrous Porn Laws through, this morning Jeremy Wright came to the Commons to confirm Guido’s report from last month that the Porn Laws will not be coming into force on 15th July. The problem apparently is that DCMS forgot to notify the EU of the change in the law, a cock-up which Wright says he only noticed last Friday, meaning the turgid legislation will be delayed for at least a further six months. Beautifully sums up May’s dire premiership – she can’t even get her grossly authoritarian legislation enacted because she hasn’t managed to leave the EU…
If anything this looks like a convenient excuse for ministers who have belatedly realised just how counterproductive and unenforceable the legislation will be, not to mention how deeply unpopular it will be when the unsuspecting public get caught with their pants down. Guido has spoken to MPs and ministers who were genuinely taken aback when they realised just how much of a mess the Government’s bone-headed policy is. DCMS won’t give a hard deadline following this third delay, by the time a new PM takes over the legislation will be so limp they should just toss it out…
Last week Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt announced he was appointing Amal Clooney as the UK’s envoy on media freedom. Today Culture Secretary Jeremy Wright has put out a government White Paper on ‘Online Harms’ which includes proposals for a regulator which will have the power to ban the websites of non-compliant companies from being accessed in the UK at all. Someone tell Amal quick!
You would think that the likes of Facebook and Twitter would be up in arms – they are not because as Dom Hallas, Executive Director of The Coalition for a Digital Economy (Coadec), says
“Everyone, including British startups, shares the goal of a safer internet – but these plans will entrench the tech giants, not punish them. The vast scope of the proposals means they cover not just social media but virtually the entire internet – from file sharing to newspaper comment sections. Those most impacted will not be the tech giants the Government claims they are targeting, but everyone else. It will benefit the largest platforms with the resources and legal might to comply – and restrict the ability of Britissh startups to compete fairly. There is a reason that Mark Zuckerberg has called for more regulation. It is in Facebook’s business interest.”
86% of UK investors surveyed by Coadec say that proposals claiming to tackle tech giants could lead to poor outcomes that inadvertently damage tech startups and hamper competition. As with the GDPR and we are likely to see with the Copyright Directive, the tech giants are in fact best placed to absorb wide-ranging regulation. There is a real risk of the global platforms getting bigger and British startups suffering.
There is also a risk that a future Corbyn govenment will use the legislation against political opponents. When you see the likes of Owen Jones being applauded for describing the Spectator, Sun, Mail, Telegraph, Express and of course Guido, as “spreading hate”, you can easily imagine the legislation being used by a Corbyn government to close down dissident media. This is a dangerous path being foolishly and short-sightedly cheered on by newspapers who think it will scupper the global platforms who are eating into their advertising revenue.
See: Coadec report with the survey data referred to can be found in full here.
Cabinet minister Jeremy Wright on #Brexit: “There are a number of different ways” to get legal changes to the Northern Irish backstop#Marr https://t.co/99TkHy8W5i pic.twitter.com/smocS1K5y9
— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) February 17, 2019
Jeremy Wright doing nothing to help the growing sense that the Government is not serious about negotiating concrete legal changes to the backstop.
Wright refuses to commit to reopening the text of the Withdrawal Agreement – as May promised the Commons – saying “I don’t think it’s the mechanism that matters, it’s the objective.” You might have expected the man who was Attorney General a matter of months ago to be a little bit more concerned about the legal details…
Culture Secretary Jeremy Wright on regulation of social media companies: “I’m not asking their permission” #Marr https://t.co/clIOhoCiN9 pic.twitter.com/PWTarZ83ue
— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) February 17, 2019
Culture Secretary Jeremy Wright makes it clear that the Government will be pressing ahead with heavy-handed knee-jerk regulation of social media companies, bolshily insisting “I’m not asking their permission”. Has Gavin Williamson been coaching him on rhetoric?
There is an important debate to be had about the role of social media in society. Whipping up fears about public “safety” and ramming through poorly thought-out regulations is not the way to do it.
"No wonder you don't have time to read the newspaper every morning!" Culture Secretary Jeremy Wright tells Julia about his monster lego collection.@JuliaHB1 | @DCMS_SecOfState | https://t.co/sv3MZUm41c pic.twitter.com/1CWX1DMrhx
— talkRADIO (@talkRADIO) November 9, 2018
Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport Jeremy Wright made a valiant attempt this morning to put to bed rumours that he has no interest in anything related to the world of digital, media, culture, or sport by revealing that he has a “very large indeed” personal Lego collection.
He confessed his wife would call his collection “far too large” and that he has built a 4,500 piece death star. Wright calls Lego “a great way of putting your brain into neutral.” Some people just can’t Lego of their childhood passion…
They’re cracking out the grass skirts and coconut bikini tops at the Attorney General’s Office: an email invite has gone round inviting staff to a “Hawaiian themed end of term beach party“. The joint law officers’ party – hosted by Attorney General Jeremy Wright and the Solicitor General Robert Buckland – is on Monday:
Guido asked the Attorney General’s Office if sand and palm trees are brought in specially. A spokesman did not get back to us. Your honour-lulu…
