ORG policy update/2018-w06

This is ORG's Policy Update for the week beginning 05/02/2018.

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ORG’s work

ORG have started fundraising to recruit more permanent members of our legal team. Join ORG today to help out!
ORG have added a new legal section to the main site, to more closely document ORG's current and historic activity.
ORG is running a petition against the Government’s misguided proposals threatening fines for internet companies who do not rapidly censor extremist material shared on their platforms. Sign the petition here!
ORG are hard at work updating the court ordered blocks section of the Blocked! tool to display clearer and more accurate information about court ordered blocks.
ORG have launched an open call for ideas to develop a tool for consumers to enjoy their stronger rights under GDPR. This is a joint project with Projects by IF, funded through a grant from the Information Commissioner Office.

Planned local group events:

ORG Oxford is back! Join them at Oxford Hackspace on 12 February for their first event.
Join ORG Scotland Director Matthew Rice on 16 February at ORG Edinburgh to discuss ORG's plans for Scotland in 2018.
Join ORG staff Mike Morel and Alex Haydock at ORG London on 19 February for a discussion on the modern threats to free speech online.
Hear ORG's Legal Director Myles Jackman update ORG Norwich about ORG's current and future legal activities on 19 February

Official meetings

ORG hosted a GDPR awareness and readiness event for other NGOs working on similar projects. Speakers included data protection consultant Tim Turner, campaign software providers More Onion, and representatives from the ICO.
Jim Killock and Matthew Rice met with the Electoral Commission to discuss Scottish and Welsh electronic voting proposals.

National developments

Theresa May confirms intent to compel web platforms to do more about online intimidation

Theresa May confirmed in a speech in Manchester that she intends to work with web platforms to compel them to take more action with regard to "online intimidation".

May noted that the Committee on Standards in Public Life "makes a number of recommendations for action which social media companies can take" to address the problem of online harrassment and intimidation.

In her speech, May also confirmed that the Government intends to "establish a new Annual Internet Safety Transparency Report, to provide UK-level data on what offensive online content is being reported, how social media companies are responding to complaints, and what material is removed."

She also confirmed that the Law Commission would be conducting a review of the legislation relating to online offensive communications.

NCSC publishes report on Active Cyber Defence programme

One year on from the implementation of their "Active Cyber Defence" programme, Technical Director of the National Cyber Security Centre, Dr Ian Levy, published a report detailing the progress of the scheme.

The report suggests that the programme has been a success overall and offers an in-depth technical breakdown of the programme's focuses.

Police deploy automated facial recognition in Cardiff City Centre

South Wales Police inspector Scott Lloyd confirmed on Twitter that South Wales Police have deployed facial recognition technology in Cardiff City Centre. He claims the first identification and arrest occurred within one hour of the technology becoming operational.

Digital Secretary Matt Hancock confirms no intent to create new social media regulator

In an interview with the BBC, Matt Hancock MP confirmed that the Government had no current plans to create a new regulator to take on the responsibility of regulating social media.

"If you tried to bring in a new regulator you’d end up having to regulate everything", Hancock said. "But that doesn’t mean that we don’t need to make sure that the regulations ensure that markets work properly and people are protected."

International developments

EFF finds US Govt abusing surveillance powers even with individual court oversight

In documents obtained from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), the Electronic Frontier Foundation claims to have discovered that "even when the court authorizes the government to spy on specific Americans for national security purposes, that authorization can be misused to potentially violate other people’s civil liberties."

The documents represent the third batch of FISC opinions released to the EFF as a result of their Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Court, and the organisation's in-depth look at the documents can be read here.

Questions in the UK Parliament

Question about online sales of knives and weapons

Ross Thomson MP asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department "what recent steps her Department has taken to prevent the illegal sale of knives and other offensive weapons online".

Victoria Atkins responded that the Government was currently considering the responses to a consultation completed in December 2017 which proposed restricting the sale of knives online. She also confirmed that the Government have been working with Amazon and eBay to implement age verification for online knife and weapon sales.

Question about the sale of illegal drugs online

Ross Thomson MP asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department "what recent steps her Department has taken to prevent the sale of illegal drugs online".

Victoria Atkins responded, indicating that "law enforcement agencies continue to work with internet providers to shut down UK-based websites found to be committing offences, building on work already underway to tackle the sale and supply of illegal drugs in the UK and overseas and tackle associated organised crime."

Question about the Internet Safety Strategy

During a House of Commons debate, Matt Hancock MP confirmed that the Government is looking to bring forward the date of publication for the Social Media Code of Practice, and for an annual internet transparency report.

Hancock also confirmed that the Government expects to publish the full Internet Safety Strategy in Spring 2018.

Matt Hancock asked to ensure Matt Hancock complies with Data Protection regulations

During a House of Commons Debate, Kevin Brennan asked whether Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Matt Hancock, would undertake to ensure that his official mobile app "complies fully with all data protection regulations in future".

Matt Hancock replied suggesting that he was "delighted by the response the app has had", and confirmed that he believed it already complied with the necessary data protection legislation.

ORG media coverage

See ORG Press Coverage for full details.

2018-02-08-The Guardian-Ask Jack: How can I control my child’s social media use?: Author: Jack Schofield; Summary: ORG's Blocked tool mentioned in The Guardian's 'Ask Jack' readers' questions page.; Topics: Censorship

ORG Contact Details

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