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Simfin

online safety and digital citizenship specialist

 Tagged with extremism


15 August 2021

It is hard to see how Davison’s actions fail to meet the government’s definition of terrorism, which includes “the use of threat or action… to intimidate the public”. Examples include serious violence against one or more people, endangering someone’s life or creating a serious risk to the health and safety of the public: tick, tick and tick.

But here is the get-out clause. The definition stipulates that terrorism must be “for the purpose of advancing a political, religious, racial or ideological cause” and it is often argued that even the most extreme misogyny does not meet that test.

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28 July 2021

Regulator Ofcom has announced Anna-Sophie Harling will be its online safety principal, dealing with how the tech giants regulate harmful speech.

She will be in charge of implementing the Online Safety Bill, due to come into effect later this year if approved by Parliament.

Ofcom will be able to fine tech firms that fail to remove offending content up to 10% of their global revenue.

But one expert said this would require "bold leadership".

Ms Harling will be part of a team reporting into Ofcom's chief executive Melanie Dawes.

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05 May 2021

Donald Trump has launched a new "communications" website, which says it will publish content "straight from the desk" of the former US president.

Mr Trump was banned by Twitter and suspended by Facebook and YouTube after the Capitol riots in January.

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11 January 2021

In the wake of the violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by scores of President Trump’s supporters, a lone researcher began an effort to catalogue the posts of social media users across Parler, a platform founded to provide conservative users a safe haven for uninhibited “free speech” — but which ultimately devolved into a hotbed of far-right conspiracy theories, unchecked racism, and death threats aimed at prominent politicians.

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