Guido first reported on the government’s plans to strangle non-state approved social media last month. Now everyone is catching up…
Labour’s consultation does not even allow people to say they are opposed to state control of algorithms:
The now-published green paper from DCMS details that Labour is committed to a “prominence regime” for social media, requiring platforms and video sharing sites to make state-approved news more prominent to the detriment of independent content. The government would decide who counts as a “trustworthy news provider” but admits the criteria aren’t yet written apart from BBC etc…
Labour says prominence could be made conditional on providers taking on extra “responsibilities.” Compliance…
The scope goes beyond broadcasters to national and local newspapers. The government also says this will be useful during “community tension, social unrest and democratic events.” There is a big Labour effort to shut down free communication during elections and protests…
This all comes as Lisa Nandy quits X in a huff. The war between the state and free information exchange has only just begun…
Word reaches Guido that the government intends to publish a green paper on the future of broadcasting in the UK either in the coming week or the week after. More Ofcom expansion and pot shots at right-of-centre outlets incoming…
The main news, however, is set to be a range of measures to force private social media companies to ‘give prominence’ to public service content. Translated, that means giving the BBC preference in search results and on the algorithm of video sites such as YouTube. It’s not as if the BBC already has total dominance of the broadcast market or anything, holding as it does more than 75% of average viewing time…
Other platforms like TikTok will likely be affected. Could the timing have anything to do with the fact that YouTube overtook the total audience reach of the BBC recently?
Forcing British consumers to consume BBC and other public broadcasting content while they browse their phones is yet another government intervention in the free media market. It’s bad for content creators, will only increase antipathy to the BBC, and is an infringement on the freedom of scrollers everywhere. Starmer wants a legacy to justify his two disastrous years in Number 10. This is what it looks like…
The government has not worked out how its social media ban will work. Quelle surprise…
At the Lobby briefing of political journalists Starmer’s spokesman said the UK is pursuing the “same model as Australia” when it comes to selecting which websites to ban – it’s user to user platforms.
Messaging services are not included, neither will be ‘educational tools’ and news and music. the spokesman said: “We will be setting out exemptions and keeping these under review.“ The state will decide which content counts as safe enough for teenagers to consume…
The government is promising more detail next month, with full measures coming in Spring next year after regulations are drafted by the end of this year. The spokesman said “there are still some details to be worked through” but the government as set out its “broad range of intentions.” It cannot say how age verification will work…
Soviet controls will be required for this to come close to working. Welcome to Labour’s Britain…
Starmer is in Downing Street to announce an “Australia+” style social media ban. Nightly curfews for kids…
Under 16s will be banned from ten popular apps and from livestreaming. The policy does not work according to the available global evidence so far…
“Today I can announce that the government will ban access to social media for all children under the age of 16.”
Since Labour is laying the groundwork for an Australia-style social media ban for u16s, it is worth checking how the prototype is going. Less than a year in, Australia’s eSafety Commissioner is reporting “major gaps” and a significant data breach has already made the news. Imagine the kind of mess Whitehall could make of this…
How Australia’s u16 ban is going:
- 70,000 ID images stolen in the Discord breach. A hack on third-party support firm 5CA in October 2025 swept up government IDs (passports, driving licences) handed over for age checks. Almost the entire global haul, 68,000 victims, was Australian.
- Hackers published selfies of users holding their IDs as proof of the leak, and claimed 2 million similar images, though Discord disputed the figure. Encouraging…
- The government’s own age-tech trial flagged the risk in advance. The Age Check Certification Scheme found providers were “over-anticipating” regulator demands by quietly building tools to retrace users’ verification steps. Facial recognition was accurate within 18 months only 85% of the time…
- Roughly 7 in 10 under-16s with Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat or TikTok accounts before the ban still had them three months in, per the eSafety Commissioner’s March 2026 compliance report. The most common reason parents gave was the platform hadn’t even asked their child to verify their age.
- VPN downloads “nearly tripled” in the run-up to the ban, according to Reuters. Asked how platforms should block kids using VPNs, the eSafety Commissioner’s office declined to comment. Labour has its sights set on VPNs for a reason. Although tech-savvy kids will inevitably bypass that as well…
Discord has postponed its global age verification rollout to late 2026 after backlash, admitting it “missed the mark“.
The privacy implications of such a ban are enormous. It will be a hacker’s dream…
Labour’s chairman has said the government should “seize this moment” to further regulate the internet for children and said “nothing is off the table” when it comes to banning social media for youngsters.
Anna Turley – who attends Cabinet – has taken the broadcast round ahead of a rapid month consultation launched by Liz Kendall after Starmer was minded towards U-turning on his original opposition to a ban. Bruising defeats for the government in the House of Lords in January widened some eyes in No10…
Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting called for a full-on ban over the weekend. Turley said it was “really helpful to hear so many opinions over the last few months” and added:
“The consultation closes today and I think it is really important as a Government that we seize this moment, we get it right, and that’s why we’ve taken our time with this consultation to make sure that we listen to absolutely everybody, to make sure we get the right outcome for the future of our children in this country.”
Campaigners have gone big on the PR for a new study calling social media “the new smoking” for children. Will it ever end…
Turley added: “We’ve got legislation in place already to enable us to take these powers, so we’ll be acting as soon as possible because we need to make sure we protect children going forward and we get this right.” The consultation closes at midnight tonight…
Lord Khan in the Telegraph: “I hope, and I say this in a non-pompous way, that the public service I do will bring rewards in this world and the hereafter,” he says. “I’m hoping the work I do is earning me Brownie points.”
