Digital Britain
Britain was traditionally influential in European telecoms policy. It was a British Commissioner, Lord Cockfield, who established the Single European Market, that paved the way for a de-regulation of telecoms across Europe.
Nowadays, the policy focus is all about online safety and regulating big tech platforms. It's a field that has been developing since 2015 when the UK proposed the first Online Safety Bill - the predecessor to what is now the Online Safety Act 2023. You can read about it in this section and go here for the latest on Online Safety
This section contains in-depth discussion of the Digital Economy Act 2010, a law that mandated broadband providers to work with the music and film industries, in order to enforce copyright on the Internet. The law was unworkable and never implemented: a lesson that should be taken on board by all tech policy-makers.
If you are interested in the Digital Economy Act and copyright enforcement policy, it is also written up in my books. If you are a student looking for a citation, you should reference them. They are in many university libraries: A Copyright Masquerade: How Corporate Lobbying Threatens Online Freedoms and The Copyright Enforcement Enigma
You may also like my book The Closing of the Net which positions the issues in the wider policy context.
you may like my books A Copyright Masquerade: How Corporate Lobbying Threatens Online Freedoms and The Copyright Enforcement Enigma Internet Politics and the 'Telecoms Package'
IPtegrity politics
- Shadow bans: EU law says users may not be left in the dark
- EU at loggerheads over chat control
- Why the Online Safety Act is not fit for purpose
- Fixing the human rights failings in the Online Safety Act
- Whatever happened to the AI Bill?
- Hidden effects of the UK Online Safety Act
- EU puts chat control on back burner
- Why did X lock my account for not providing my birthday?
- Creation of deep fakes to be criminal offence under new law
- AI and tech: Asks for the new government
- How WhatsApp holds structural power
- Meta rolls out encryption as political headwinds ease
- EU law set for new course on child online safety
- Online Safety Act: Ofcom’s 1700-pages of tech platform rules
- MEPs reach political agreement to protect children and privacy
- Online Safety - a non-consensual Act
- Not a blank cheque: European Parliament consents to EU-UK Agreement
About Iptegrity
Iptegrity.com is the website of Dr Monica Horten, independent policy advisor: online safety, technology and human rights. Advocating to protect the rights of the majority of law abiding citizens online. Independent expert on the Council of Europe Committee of Experts on online safety and empowerment of content creators and users. Published author, and post-doctoral scholar, with a PhD from the University of Westminster, and a DipM from the Chartered Institute of Marketing. Former telecoms journalist, experienced panelist and Chair, cited in the media eg BBC, iNews, Times, Guardian and Politico.
Politics & copyright
A Copyright Masquerade: How Corporate Lobbying Threatens Online Freedoms
'timely and provocative' Entertainment Law Review
Online Safety
- Shadow bans: EU law says users may not be left in the dark
- Why the Online Safety Act is not fit for purpose
- Fixing the human rights failings in the Online Safety Act
- Hidden effects of the UK Online Safety Act
- Why did X lock my account for not providing my birthday?
- Online Safety Act: Ofcom’s 1700-pages of tech platform rules
- Online Safety - a non-consensual Act
- Online Safety Bill passes as US court blocks age-checks law
- Online Safety Bill: ray of hope for free speech
- National Crime Agency to run new small boats social media centre
- Online Safety Bill: does government want to snoop on your WhatsApps?
- What is content of democratic importance?
- Online Safety Bill: One rule for them and another for us
- Online Safety Bill - Freedom to interfere?
- Copyright-style website blocking orders slipped into Online Safety Bill