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The UK speech regulator's chief executive, Dame Melanie Dawes, told MPs this week that the regulator won’t be able to recover every Online Safety Act fine. Nine of the eleven fines it has issued remain unpaid.
4chan was fined ÂŁ520,000 plus ÂŁ800 a day, and its lawyer replied with a picture of an AI-generated hamster. When Ofcom wrote again, he sent another hamster.
In July, Ofcom closed a case against an American forum it had fined ÂŁ950,000 because it had run out of legal routes. Then it asked the government for more powers.
In the same hearing, Dawes said the UK’s under-16 social media ban will be “much more draconian” for Meta than its US settlement. Those were her words.
The only way to keep under-16s off a platform is to check the age of every adult on it.
reclaimthenet.org/ofcom-stru…
Georgia can now make every social media user in the state verify their age before they post a single word. Parents of anyone under 16 may have to hand over their government ID or a payment card number to approve the account.
The Eleventh Circuit never ruled that the law is constitutional. It ruled that NetChoice brought the wrong kind of challenge and didn’t list enough of its own members.
That procedural slip is now enough to put an ID check in front of millions of adults. The law was sold as protecting kids, but in practice it ends anonymous accounts for everyone in Georgia.
Gabriel Attal, France’s former Prime Minister and Macron’s Renaissance party candidate for the 2027 presidency, blocked TikTok across New Caledonia in 2024.
France’s highest administrative court later ruled the block illegal because it was total and open-ended.
Now he wants the power back, this time described as “temporary” and “targeted,” aimed at whatever territory the riots happen to be in.
He also wants facial recognition and AI run on surveillance footage and on videos people post online, so that within 48 hours of unrest starting, suspects are being found at their homes.
He says the goal is to “set an example.”
Australia banned under-16s from social media last December. A University of Chicago study found about 73% of the 14 and 15 year olds it covers are still on the banned apps. The platforms have already closed more than 5 million accounts and set AI loose on people’s posts looking for mentions of birthdays and school grades. It didn’t work.
So the government doubled the maximum fine to A$109.2 million. That didn’t work either.
Now it’s preparing to sue Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube. The eSafety Commissioner has new powers to summon current and former employees and question them under oath. Anyone who refuses to answer faces 12 months in prison.
Nobody in charge has stopped to ask whether the law is the problem. Kids keep getting around it, and the only way to close the gaps is to check the age of every Australian, adults included. That was always where this was heading.
An Australian MP Helen Haines was reportedly attacked with a car outside her electorate office on Monday. The driver was known to police. He had a knife in his vehicle and is now facing a mental health assessment. Police called it an isolated incident.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese went on the ABC that evening and blamed social media.
Four days earlier, his government tabled the Online Safety Amendment (Digital Duty of Care) Bill. It runs to 90 pages and never once mentions free speech. It fines platforms up to $109.2 million for leaving "harmful" posts up. It fines them nothing for taking too many down. Any platform lawyer can do that math.
Communications Minister Anika Wells says the government is not controlling free speech. She said this while introducing a law that forces platforms to delete it.
Australia has run this play before. After Bondi, the government demanded footage be scrubbed and pushed new speech rules. The eSafety Commissioner then asked for a power to make platforms act on “pile-ons.” Every attack becomes an argument for more control over what Australians can post.
reclaimthenet.org/albanese-b…
Germany has passed its national law for the EU Digital Identity Wallet, launching January 2 as “d-you.”
The government insists it’s voluntary. Platforms will be legally required to accept it, even where EU rules don’t demand it.
The age for using online ID drops from 16 to 13. A ban on automatically sharing biometric photos between passport and ID card authorities has been scrapped. The pseudonym function EU law requires won’t be ready at launch. The SPD already wants the wallet mandatory for social media and has complained that VPNs make it too easy to get around. Every part that expands the system is ready to go.
reclaimthenet.org/germany-ap…
Discord told users it doesn’t look at their messages, calls, or other content when sorting accounts by age. Florida is now suing Discord because it doesn’t look at their messages, calls, or other content. The complaint objects that Discord’s filters only scan images and videos and leave text, voice, and calls untouched.
It lists voice and video channels as an unfair practice. It wants ID checks before users can be seen or share anything.
The state is seeking up to $150,000 per violation and a court order to make it happen.
Florida calls this child safety but it's a demand that nobody on Discord gets to have a private conversation again.
Eight US states have sued OpenAI, and their main complaint is that ChatGPT collects too much data from children. Their proposed fix is age verification for every user, which means collecting far more data from everyone.
West Virginia wants “effective age assurance.” Montana wants OpenAI barred from processing personal information until it checks IDs. Idaho wants age verification “without limitation.”
People tell ChatGPT things they would never tell another person. The states want each of those conversations signed.
The British government wants to extend the TV license fee to YouTube, Netflix, Amazon and Disney+. The Independent calls it the “YouTube tax,” and it is expected in the BBC charter white paper before Christmas.
A Whitehall source explained the supposed purpose. The money would fund local journalism and counter the “conspiracy theories and fake news” they say have helped parties like Reform get elected.
That is a government official admitting the goal is to tax the public into voting differently.
The government would decide what counts as fake news.
An estimated 3 to 4 million extra households would have to pay ÂŁ180 a year. Many of them use YouTube precisely to avoid the BBC.
A separate plan would push the legacy media to the top of people's YouTube feed. People would pay for the mainstream broadcasters, and then pay again with their algorithm.
Armed police arrested Graham Linehan at Heathrow over three posts on X, held him in a cell for 12 hours and banned him from tweeting as a bail condition. Prosecutors dropped the case. The Met then apologized, paid him £25,000 and blamed an overworked trainee detective. Nobody was disciplined. The punishment for the officers was “learning through reflection.”
Now the police watchdog has ruled that the Met’s own review of the arrest was not reasonable or proportionate. It says that if the force cannot justify the arrest, the bail conditions or its treatment of free expression, Linehan may have been treated unfairly because of his views.
The Met has apologized for everything except the arrest. Maybe it needs to try again.
The Eleventh Circuit just let Florida’s social media ID law stand. Under-14s are banned outright, and 14 and 15-year-olds need a parent’s permission. To enforce that, platforms have to check the age of everyone, adults included.
The court says a minor can still use these platforms through a parent’s account, or without an account at all. So the law doesn’t keep kids out. It only stops the honest ones, and it makes every adult hand over ID to read and post lawful speech.
Judge Rosenbaum warned last year that this ties real identities to accounts and ends anonymous posting.
reclaimthenet.org/florida-so…
Eight states sued OpenAI this week for collecting too much data from children. Their proposed fix is to collect far more data from everyone.
They want courts to force age verification on ChatGPT, which means every adult would have to prove who they are before asking a chatbot anything.
A court has already made OpenAI hand 20 million conversations to the New York Times.
Once those chats are tied to a real name, the next request will come from someone with a badge. These states are asking judges to impose ID checks that their own lawmakers never passed. The states are trying to get it through consumer protection law instead.
reclaimthenet.org/openai-law…