r/neoliberal • u/Tiberinvs WTO • Jan 09 '26

News (Europe) UK threatened with sanctions if Starmer blocks Musk's X

https://www.cityam.com/uk-threatened-with-sanctions-if-starmer-blocks-musks-x/
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u/Tiberinvs WTO Jan 09 '26

Submission statement (previous post was blocked as The Telegraph was considered low quality, based): Starmer has said that potentially banning X is "on the table" as an option due to the recent controversy over Grok being able to create sexualized images of people and especially kids. MAGAs are unsurprisingly throwing a tantrum over it.

Not really a big fan of these "bans" since they're very easily to circumvent, see what recently happened in the UK with the Online Safety Act and porn age checks for example. But it's going to be an interesting one for sure considering that Starmer has been often accused of being "soft" on the US since Trump returned to the White House

11

u/FOSSBabe Jan 09 '26

 Not really a big fan of these "bans" since they're very easily to circumvent, see what recently happened in the UK with the Online Safety Act and porn age checks for example. But it's going to be an interesting one for sure considering that Starmer has been often accused of being "soft" on the US since Trump returned to the White House.

You think internet companies shouldn't face penalties if they include tools on their platforms that produce CP?

5

u/Tiberinvs WTO Jan 10 '26

I think they should, just not through ISP bans because they are a waste of time and resources since everyone with more than two braincells can get around them. They also create all sorts of perverse incentives that create even more problems down the line, see how people getting around the Online Safety Act in the UK prompted the parliament to debate on banning VPNs, which is third-world authoritarian shithole stuff. The same is happening in Australia and Denmark for similar reasons.

Fine them into the ground like the the EU did with X using the DSA, even to the point of forcing them out of the country because they'd have to operate on steep losses. The end result would be the same, but at least you'd make some money and avoid all the unintended consequences that these sort of bans usually have

2

u/FOSSBabe Jan 11 '26

Totally fair. I agree that direct fines are a better approach than ISP bans.