This is good news:
No 10 has shelved plans to force tech companies to take down fake news amid fears a free speech row could derail trade talks with Donald Trump.
Downing Street was considering reintroducing proposals to ban “legal but harmful” content on social media – a move that was previously mooted by the Tories – but has now backed away from the idea.
@Flick It's all a blatant attempt to stop people freely talking to one another under the guise of their being the good guys re "safety".
“We’re initially prioritising the compliance of sites and apps that may present particular risks of harm from illegal content due to their size or nature – for example because they have a large number of users in the UK, or because their users may risk encountering some of the most harmful forms of online content and conduct.” ‘The home of all things hamstery’ However, many smaller internet forums have said they are not willing to deal with the compliance, or shoulder the theoretical financial burden of the new laws. “While this forum has always been perfectly safe, we were unable to meet [the compliance requirements of the Act],” wrote the operators of The Hamster Forum, which describes itself as “the home of all things hamstery”. Richard Fairhurst, the administrator of the “Charlbury in the Cotswolds” forum, wrote that the Act was “a huge issue for small sites, both in terms of the hoops that site admins have to jump through, and potential liability”. “Running a small forum is much harder than it was when I started doing this almost 25 years ago,” he wrote on the site. The site has remained open but closed a debate board where people discussed off-topic issues. Mr Fairhurst, who has run the forum since 2001, told The Telegraph: “By putting all these burdens on the small sites its going to push people away from these small locally run British-owned sites and towards the American giants.” Bike Radar, the forum of the cycling magazine, shut down on Monday blaming “continually rising operational costs” without mentioning the Act specifically. The site has millions of posts.
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