@jim@social.openrightsgroup.org Profile picture
Executive Director, @OpenRightsGroup Follow me on Mastodon @jim@social.openrightsgroup.org

Nov 27, 2019, 10 tweets

The US-UK trade negotiations are looking just as bad as you might expect, given the disparity of negotiating strength. The media have focused on the NHS, but @openDemocracy here analyse some of the other aspects:

opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocra…

@openDemocracy But top prize goes to @reddit where apparently the whole set of negotiation papers was leaked *a month ago* and nobody noticed.

reddit.com/r/worldpolitic…

@openDemocracy @reddit Link to the actual papers to download is here: openload.cc/M8MbD08fn7/OFF…

@openDemocracy @reddit Here is the bit about #GDPR, according to the Reddit thread. We will have to “reconsider” our approach.

@openDemocracy @reddit These documents open up the actual conversation we need to have about #Brexit.

Where are we going? Because this looks like wholesale divergence from EU standards and deregulation.

@openDemocracy @reddit Here's a taste of the USA's initial desires on #digitaltrade

Bans on opening source code and examining algorithms are plain attacks on attempts to make digital systems accountable, non-discriminatory and fair to *actual people*.

@openDemocracy @reddit More from the US.

Current trade negotiations are looking at banning access to source code and algorithms.

In other words: when a company decides you can't have a job, insurance, or denies an ethnic minority access to a product, we're not allowed to know why.

#digitaltrade

@openDemocracy @reddit Here's some detail US ambitions for IP and copyright.

They will want lots of detail to hammer DRM into law, with severe penalties for breaking it, and so on.

That's bad if you want to back up content, or if DRM security issues mean your device is putting you at risk.

@openDemocracy @reddit They also want trade secrets reinforced. This is really dubious.

It may sound reasonable but it's a way to keep companies' strange practices well out of scrutiny. See @Senficon's blog on the problems with trade secret protections here: juliareda.eu/2015/06/trade-…

@openDemocracy @reddit @Senficon The UK affirmed its support for copyright filtering and charges on use of newspaper previews on social media from links (the #linktax).

Just in case you were worried that we'd abandon every idea that's come from the EU, no we'll definitely keep the bad ones.

Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.

A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.

Keep scrolling