Haunted Backlog

THE UK IS TRYING TO REGULATE THE ENTIRE U.S. DIGITAL ECONOMY - AND ONLY THE GRANITE ACT CAN STOP IT The UK's insane pivot to try to regulate eBay as a social media network (because it includes direct messaging) is simply the next step in the plan it has had all along: Controlling the entire U.S. digital economy through extraterritorial regulations. As the lawyer for the first four American targets of Ofcom, it was clear that the UK's attempted rollout of the Online Safety Act was to take place in phases. Based on the enforcement patterns, this is roughly what we observed: STEP 1: TEST CASES That step happened. Ofcom went after Gab, Kiwi Farms, 4chan, and SaSu. All four refused Ofcom's orders and refused to pay fines. 4chan, in particular, forced the UK to engage in an embarrassing climb-down in Parliament about enforcing its fine - but the UK's enforcement activity continues to escalate against progressively larger American targets. STEP 2: PIVOT TO MAINSTREAM SOCIAL APPS Having failed to tame 4chan, the UK then went after the social media majors - Roblox, X, TikTok, Meta - in order to (a) restore the regulatory regime's credibility and (b) chalk up some wins against targets that have domestic UK footprints and, accordingly, are not judgment-proof there. STEP 3: WIDEN THE NET This is today's announcement. The UK is extending the logic applicable to social media platforms to drag U.S. marketplaces into the ambit of the Online Safety Act, arguing that the messaging features of these platforms make them social media platforms. STEP 4: WIDEN THE NET SOME MORE If the UK is allowed to get away with this, it will start working its way down to progressively smaller platforms. THE SOLUTION: THE GRANITE ACT The UK won't try this crap if there's a risk that they'll face a U.S. federal lawsuit and a court defeat. There is a bill before the House, H.R. 10174, the GRANITE Act (Guaranteeing Rights Against Novel International Tyranny and Extortion), that would fix this. It has a companion in the Senate. CONGRESS: PROTECT THE U.S. DIGITAL ECONOMY AND PASS THE GRANITE ACT.