Several years of watching Parliamentary hearings, participating in the shaping of legislation, and observing the politicisation of the fundamental rules of the open web have proven the old axiom: if you regulate the web as if only Facebook and Google exist, the end result will be that only Facebook and Google exist.
UK policy
Recent UK government policies, consultations, and controversies related to digital and tech. For insight into UK tech policy throughout the Brexit proecss, visit my side blog at https://afterbrexit.tech.
Table layout: or, how not to shape internet regulation in 2020
Let’s talk about democracy, and technology, and how sausages are made.
Read moreTable layout: or, how not to shape internet regulation in 2020
The Startup Manifesto
I was delighted to contribute to The Entrepreneurs Network and Coadec’s joint 2019 General Election manifesto, where we set forth our policy ideas for the next government. My contributions, as always, were around internet regulation.
The Online Harms framework just got a lot darker
Something distressing happened this week in the Commons chamber, and the Prime Minister wasn’t even there.
What you need to know about a No Deal Brexit
I didn’t think we’d be here, but here we are. In my capacity as a Policy Fellow at COADEC, the tech policy body for the UK’s tech startups, I have written a plain-English guide for tech and digital businesses to use to prepare for a No Deal Brexit. While the guidance is aimed at startups and scaleups, the advice is applicable to all tech businesses regardless of where they are on their journey.
Tech policy is no place for hero fantasies
Don’t you love it when a policymaker resigns their post and you can hit publish on an old draft, which is very much my personal thoughts not in a professional … Read more
Just how bad is the ICO’s draft age appropriate design code?
Updated May 2020.
Last month I worked with Coadec, the policy voice of Britain’s tech startups, to lead on the formulation of their response to the ICO’s draft Age Appropriate Design Code. I wrote this draft document as a roadmap for the work, although what follows here are very much my own personal thoughts, not Coadec’s.
Read moreJust how bad is the ICO’s draft age appropriate design code?
Won’t somebody think of the democracy?
I wrote for PublicTechnology about the Minister for Health exploiting technology fears to run roughshod over consultative democracy and the rule of law.
Named Persons II: Scotland’s next mass civilian database
Last week I was chatting with some rather cracking professional digital rights activists. The conversation included my attempt to get them, from their London/English perspective, to understand the different cultural … Read more
The UK Government Digital Strategy is out, and it’s rubbish
On 28 February the UK Government published its Government Digital Strategy. (A mea culpa first. I had confused the Government Transformation Strategy, the internal blueprint for Whitehall digital, with the … Read more
How to make a success of Brexit: the House of Lords talks digital and tech
A Parliamentary hearing into Brexit’s impact on the organised digital professions provided valuable lessons for the unorganised web industry to follow.
Labour’s questions on digital and tech for the government on #Brexit
Labour has released 170 questions for the government concerning Brexit and policy. Here are their questions regarding digital and the tech industry.
Everything said about digital in yesterday’s Brexit statement
From Hansard: Mrs Anne Main (St Albans) (Con): I congratulate my right hon. Friend on his statement today. In particular, I liked the section in which he said that he … Read more
Brexit, the UK, and the Digital Single Market: what’s next?
One of the many questions left unanswered in the face of Brexit is the future of the UK within the EU’s Digital Single Market (DSM).