Labour Digital Rights Network
371 posts
@LabDRN
Championing digital rights, privacy & liberty within the Labour movement. Resisting the authoritarian playbook to build a progressive digital future. 🌹👁️
🚨 The ongoing conflict in the Middle East exposes a terrifying reality: our digital public square is being overrun with AI deepfakes designed to manipulate public opinion and poison democratic discourse. This is one of the many genuine online harms that blanket bans fail to address. Consider this: 16-year-olds will soon be granted the right to vote. If we ban them from social media until their 16th birthday, they will suddenly step into an algorithmic minefield of political deepfakes, disinformation and scams for the very first time, right when they are eligible to head to the ballot box. They will no doubt be totally overwhelmed, equipped with zero priority digital literacy or resilience. The fate of our democracy hangs in the balance. We cannot afford to leave the next generation of voters completely defenceless against generative AI tools that are growing more accessible and sophisticated by the day. It is time to force tech giants to stop their algorithms from supercharging knowingly false content for profit. But we must also empower young people with the digital skills required to navigate the internet with care and scepticism. Exclusion is not safety. Education is. Read the full @ForeignPolicy article below ⤵️ foreignpolicy.com/2026/03/17/dee…
MP Dawn Butler says manufacturers can invoke a "kill switch" so stolen phones are worthless, asking Keir Starmer if he will implement legislation to drive out crime "There's more to do but we must work with the tech industry to do so," PM says #PMQs bbc.in/4sPZaqn
One hundred days on, it’s clear Labor’s under-16s social media ban has not delivered as promised. Families were assured this would be a practical and enforceable safeguard, yet what we’ve seen is confusion for parents, uncertainty for platforms and real questions about how this works in practice. The Coalition has consistently supported stronger protections for young Australians online. But good policy is not just about announcing a plan, it’s about making sure it can actually be delivered. The government must now be upfront about what’s working and what isn’t. Parents deserve clarity and transparency, not confusion and obfuscation. This includes coming clean on how many accounts have been shut down. In January, the Prime Minister and Communications Minister announced that 4.7 million accounts were deactivated, removed, or restricted within days of the ban coming into force. This claim, inconsistent with some publicly released data, is now under a cloud after the eSafety Commissioner confirmed an investigation was underway to verify the number of impacted accounts. ➡️ afr.com/technology/fin…
One hundred days on, it’s clear Labor’s under-16s social media ban has not delivered as promised. Families were assured this would be a practical and enforceable safeguard, yet what we’ve seen is confusion for parents, uncertainty for platforms and real questions about how this works in practice. The Coalition has consistently supported stronger protections for young Australians online. But good policy is not just about announcing a plan, it’s about making sure it can actually be delivered. The government must now be upfront about what’s working and what isn’t. Parents deserve clarity and transparency, not confusion and obfuscation. This includes coming clean on how many accounts have been shut down. In January, the Prime Minister and Communications Minister announced that 4.7 million accounts were deactivated, removed, or restricted within days of the ban coming into force. This claim, inconsistent with some publicly released data, is now under a cloud after the eSafety Commissioner confirmed an investigation was underway to verify the number of impacted accounts. ➡️ afr.com/technology/fin…
Terror watchdog warns under-16s should be banned from social media amid 'brain rot' warning lbc.co.uk/article/terror…
Russia’s most popular messaging app, Telegram, has largely stopped working inside the country, according to outage-tracking websites. meduza.io/en/news/2026/0…
Companies House Admits Massive Security Loophole Was Open for Six Months order-order.com/2026/03/16/com…
The digital rights debate is the defining issue of our generation. To any Labour MPs attempting to navigate this complex world: our door is open. Give us a follow, join the conversation, and let’s shape a progressive digital future together.
94% of Britain's MPs are on Twitter - I've made a website so you can explore who they follow. 🔍Search for any username and see which MPs follow them. 🏅There's also a leaderboard so you can see who has the ear of Westminster Link here: site.mpfollowers.workers.dev
TikTok and Meta risked safety to win algorithm arms race, whistleblowers say bbc.in/4cUD2GR
