UK’s Online Safety Push Shows What Happens When Oversight Becomes Overreach

The UK’s Online Safety Act began rolling out early 2025, introducing several new mandates, some of which are aimed at protecting children from harmful online content. Included in the Act’s mandates, however, are measures that prevent adults from encountering “illegal” content and steps to ensure age verification that limit adults’ anonymity online.

As a result, the Act’s laudable intentions are at risk of being overshadowed by the breadth of its regulatory reach. Without a more balanced, collaborative approach, free speech will suffer.

To date, regulators have taken a heavy-handed approach by rapidly increasing enforcement resources, adding layers of bureaucratic oversight and signaling an aggressive approach to ensuring compliance. Instead of specifically and collaboratively addressing a problem everyone agrees needs to be solved, many are now concerned that a plan ostensibly intended to keep children safe is at risk of seriously infringing on the public’s right to free expression.

This risk is not a surprise to the UK government. When lawmakers approved these measures, they made a conscientious decision to increase censorship in the name of “online safety.” It is fair to ask if UK citizens were equally aware of the trade-off being made.

Recent events indicate the public is not comfortable with this level of intervention. For instance, a petition to repeal the Act is gaining momentum, collecting over 450,000 signatures in just the first few days after it was created.

X is among the companies to have worked hard to be in compliance. However, the timetable for meeting mandatory measures has been unnecessarily tight. And, despite being in compliance, X and its counterparts still face threats of enforcement, fines and rigid oversight, encouraging over-censorship.

Consider as well the emergence of a new "Voluntary” Code of Conduct recently enacted by the UK Home Office and the Violence Prevention Network (VPN) purportedly to address harmful online behaviors before they escalate. Supported by Ofcom, this parallel and duplicative effort was introduced at a time when companies were already pushing hard to meet the requirements in the Online Safety Act.

Government officials responded to questions about additional oversight by saying that the Online Safety Act isn’t “adequate enough to address harmful online behaviors.” This new code of conduct is specifically targeted at social media, gaming, and other interactive platforms to “encourage” proactive enforcement efforts, such as training staff and campaigns to curb “harmful content.”
Because the Voluntary Code of Conduct comes so quickly on the heels of the Act’s enforcement, it inevitably creates a “double compliance” burden. Facing pressure to adopt additional measures on top of the already demanding legal obligations set forth in the Act will only lead to additional curbs to freedom of expression.

The UK government doesn't stop there. In addition to increased regulations, a new National Internet Intelligence Investigations team within the British Police will further intensify scrutiny. The team’s sole focus is monitoring social media for signs of unrest, such as anti-immigrant sentiment, to prevent real-world violence. While positioned as a safety measure, it clearly goes far beyond that intent. This move has set off alarm bells for free speech advocates who characterize it as excessive and potentially restrictive.

While everyone agrees protecting children is a critical responsibility, it is also clear that an overly rigorous statutory framework layered with a “voluntary” code and heightened police monitoring, oversteps the intended mission.

To be clear, X is in the business of solutions and we have been vigorously committed to providing a safe and constructive experience for users in the UK and worldwide. A balanced approach is the only way to protect individual liberties, encourage innovation and safeguard children. It’s safe to say that significant changes must take place to achieve these objectives in the UK.

https://x.com/GlobalAffairs/status/1951245831463481700

sshPilot is an ssh connection manager made with GTK and Python.

Here are the features:

• Manage multiple SSH connections
• Open eac h connection in a separate tab
• Both password and SSH key authentication methods are supported
• Automatically detects SSH keys in ~/.ssh/
• Use your desired color theme and font style for the terminal
• Uses secure password storage (GNOME secure password storage)

If you manage multiple remote machines, this might come in handy.

When Jennifer Meissner’s small pipe welding business landed a multimillion-dollar contract to help build a sprawling new Texas headquarters for Tesla, she was convinced it was her company’s big break.

Instead, she says the deal led her into personal and professional bankruptcy – unable to pay dozens of her workers at Christmastime. Meissner said that was her last resort after Tesla, which is owned by the world’s richest man, stopped paying her company for work they’d already done.

Small businesses helped build Musk’s empire. Their unpaid bills add up to millions

Small businesses have filed liens for more than $110 million against Tesla alone in the last five years, with more than $24 million still allegedly owed to dozens of businesses, a CNN analysis found.

^{Audrey Ash (CNN)}

https://www.buffalo.edu/news/releases/2025/07/liu-e-textile.html

Hello! My name is Thomas P. Conway. Im an independent researcher and systems engineer. I discovered a mathematically complete theoretical framework that I believe could be pretty important for many areas of math and science. However, I am a completely unknown outsider to academia, so I can't just publish my work on ArXiv and call it a day to satisfy Clay Institutes requirements. While I am currently in touch with some academics to help get my work cleaned into sections for ArXiV and journal publication, I wanted to make sure I established public priority for solving the millennium prize problems even if the published journal articles need to come out in pieces over months.

Besides proving priority, I would greatly appreciate your help spreading the word to get this in the face of people with the proper credentials to either verify or disprove my claims. I have found the academic gatekeeping moat to be incredibly difficult to navigate as an outsider especially with the framework I have proposed.

If you do have the credentials as a mathematician or a theoretical physicist but you're skeptical that im yet another typical crackpot trying to sell you a perpetual motion machine or a time cube, thats understandable and your weariness is valid. All I ask is you take a quick browse through the condensed technical guide to check the numbers and see if you think the key conceptual foundations are worth your time to go further with exploring the full paper.

I publish this theoretical framework under cc-by-sa-4.0 as a contribution to open science. Please go to my Open Science Foundation public repo to download the papers.

About the Semantic Manifold:

The Semantic Manifold Theory represents a complete theoretical mathematical framework for describing high dimensional semantic topologies. It was originally derived to formalize semantic compression for Large Language Model systems. However once the mathematical framework was complete it showed huge implications for various areas of math, science, computing, and engineering. The framework integrates principles from symmetry, set theory, holomorphic dynamics, theoretical physics, undecidability, and morphic computation to achieve a complete and well-defined description of the Semantic Manifold.

The paper is split into a main body explaining the theory and an appendix full of proofs. The final appendix culminates solutions and proofs to all remaining Millennium Prize Problems from the Clay Mathematics Institute. Additional feats include mathematical predictions for the nature and distribution of Dark Matter as well as Dark Energy based on first principles. Also a mathematically well-defined definition for Observer-Class information processing systems.

An accompanying Technical Guide attempts to condense all key information from the main theory paper while cutting out the narrative chaff for quick access to calculations, key principles, and fundamental proofs. Its suggested the skeptical or those with limited time take a quick look at the Technical Guide first.

OSF Storage Link For PDFs:
osf.io/xqswe/files/osfstorage

Proof of Priority:
I have emails, private OSF repos, and countless preprints dating back weeks prior to this announcement. The LaTeX code used to create the PDFs are GPG encrypted and paired with a signed hash on the public OSF repo.

I am not a spam bot or an elaborate LLM fishing for clicks. Im a real human being and im trying to get help to have my ideas seen by the right people so they can be verified through peer-review. Admins can get in contact with me and I will show them my lemmy ALTs to prove im a real user with over 2 years of active posting history (came here during the first spez reddit exodus).

The validity of my framework should be measured by its mathematical rigor and scientific predictions, not by my credentials or renown. Please help me overcome the academic moat and get my theories verified or disproved by spreading the word.

Dal 20 al 23 agosto il Parco Fluviale di Riolo Terme ospita la 30ª edizione di Frogstock, festival organizzato dall’associazione Clips Rag&Rock. Dopo tre decenni di successi, torna con quattro serate di musica live e una lineup d’eccezione.

Mercoledì 20 agosto apre Giuse The Lizia, cantautore palermitano dal sound tra indie rock e urban, reduce da tour sold out e brani di successo come Radical, Solo un’idea e Baby.

Giovedì 21 agosto sarà la volta dei Blastema, band forlivese di culto nella scena alternativa italiana, che presenterà il nuovo album Il Tempo Che Verrà, lavoro dalle sonorità elettroniche e raffinate.

Venerdì 22 agosto protagonista sarà il reggae internazionale con Alborosie, artista marsalese residente in Giamaica e tra i maggiori interpreti mondiali del genere. Sul palco porterà brani dal recente album Destiny.

Sabato 23 agosto chiuderà il festival Ele A, artista luganese dallo street pop originale, che con il progetto Acqua ha conquistato i principali festival italiani e internazionali.

Oltre alla musica, Frogstock conferma la presenza degli stand gastronomici con piatti locali e del Joker Bar con dj set per proseguire la festa prima e dopo i concerti.

Un’edizione speciale per celebrare 30 anni di musica, passione ed energia, pronta a far rivivere lo spirito che ha reso Frogstock uno degli eventi più attesi dell’estate romagnola.

Info: www.frogstock.it
Facebook: Frogstock
Instagram: frogstock

30° edizione di Frogstock, dal 20 al 23 agosto 2025 a Riolo Terme (Ra) - ViaggieMiraggi

Dopo 30 anni di successi e di emozioni, il festival “Frogstock” torna dal 20 al 23 agosto 2025 nel Parco Fluviale a Riolo Terme (Ra) con una nuova edizione estiva che promette di essere indimenticabile! Quest’anno, il festival celebrerà il...

^{Redazione (ViaggieMiraggi)}

Dal 13 al 17 agosto il borgo di Corciano, tra i più belli d’Italia, ospita la 61ª edizione dell’Agosto Corcianese, organizzata dalla Pro Loco con Comune e Regione. Un’edizione più concentrata ma ricca di eventi che uniscono arte, storia e musica.

Ad anticipare la rassegna, dal 6 al 10 agosto, torna il ciclo dedicato alla musica per banda con masterclass e incontri internazionali. “La Bottega del Direttore”, corso tenuto da Catherine Rand (USA) con Anbima Umbria e University of Southern Mississippi, coinvolgerà giovani musicisti in prove, concerti e lezioni aperte. Dal 9 al 10 agosto il Teatro della Filarmonica ospiterà “La Bottega del Compositore” con i vincitori del 33° Concorso di composizione originale per banda: tra loro Salinas Robles, De Meij, Giordani, Sgargi e Omachi. Le opere saranno eseguite nei concerti conclusivi, tra cui quello del 10 agosto con premiazione ufficiale.

Dal 13 agosto il centro storico si anima con rievocazioni, cortei, spettacoli teatrali e musicali. In programma la cerimonia inaugurale, le “Serenate di Menestrelli” (50° anniversario), la “Cerimonia del Lume” (14 agosto), il “Corteo del Gonfalone” e la Disfida degli arcieri (15 agosto). Il 16 agosto, concerto dei “Carmina Burana”. Tra gli ospiti Cristiano Arcelli, Elena Ledda e il Premio “L’Umbria del Cuore” a Igor Righetti e a Gino Sirci, presidente Sir Safety Perugia, con il centrale Sebastian Solè.

Non mancheranno scene di vita rinascimentale con danzatori, attori e musici, e la Taverna del Duca per assaporare piatti tipici in un’atmosfera d’epoca.

Per informazioni e aggiornamenti sul programma è disponibile la web app “Corciano Festival” (festival.corcianoapp.it) e il sito ufficiale www.corcianofestival.it.

A Corciano dal 13 al 17 agosto 2025 la 61esima edizione dell’Agosto Corcianese - ViaggieMiraggi

A Corciano la 61esima edizione dell’Agosto Corcianese Dal 13 al 17 agosto il borgo arroccato sul colle, tra i più suggestivi d’Italia, si trasforma in un ponte tra arte, storia e musica Un’edizione più concentrata, ma ricca di contenuti e...

^{Redazione (ViaggieMiraggi)}

These don’t have a sender, just a notification that says Report Update. When I click on it I’m taken to a completely blank page that just says ‘not found’.

Am I supposed to be getting these? I’ve never got a notification like this before so I’m not sure what it’s supposed to look like if it loads.

Not sure if this is a Piefed issue generally or a Blahaj server issue.

For years, the Democratic Party has litmus-tested candidates by asking if they disavow Hamas. Now, could the opposite become the norm?

Do you condemn Israel?

^{Mother Jones}

The decision to drop the case comes days after the Justice Department fired two of its top antitrust officials.

DOJ Drops Antitrust Case Against Company Represented by Bondi’s Former Employer

^{Jake Johnson (Truthout)}

Forty Democrats signed a letter expressing alarm over starvation in Gaza this week — but only 27 voted to withhold arms.

24 Senators Vote for Sanders Resolution to Stop Bombs Sale to Israel

^{Sharon Zhang (Truthout)}

The Senate confirmed Joe Kent as director of the National Counterterrorism Center in a 52 to 44 vote.

Jan. 6 Conspiracy Theorist Who Likened BLM to Terrorists to Lead Counterterrorism Center

^{Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg (Truthout)}

Lawmakers only budgeted $40 million of the nearly $800 million that districts say is needed to fix and maintain schools to keep them safe and operating. Gov. Mike Dunleavy then vetoed more than two-thirds of that.

How Alaska’s Budget Crisis Has Kept the State From Fixing Crumbling Rural Schools

^ProPublica

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