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13 Mar, 16 tweets, 19 min read
*sigh*

Opening what I suspect will become a very long [Thread] on the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill (#PCSCBill) which, having been introduced last Tuesday, gets its #SecondReading *next* Tuesday - #precipitous, to say the least...

bills.parliament.uk/bills/2839
While it is all too often merely lip service, the Ministerial statement of #HumanRights compliance on the cover of this Bill 👇 is particularly #hypocritical, given its actual contents...
Many have been writing about the impact of this proposed legislation on lawful #protest, notably @IanDunt...

politics.co.uk/comment/2021/0…

...who, critically, picks up on the extraordinary #HenryVIII power @pritipatel is trying to grab.

(Let's hope THAT one gets struck quickly!)
Those with long(er) memories will remember a previous Government's attempts to stop #ProtestsOfOne 👇

@labour's #SOCPA - with its grotesque attempt to bar #BrianHaw from Parliament Square, best ridiculed by #SeriousOrganisedCriminal
@markthomasinfo:

theguardian.com/politics/2006/…
What perhaps fewer are noting is the assault on specific people's ways of life; the #criminalisation of gypsies, Roma & travellers, also homeless rough sleepers, is not only blatantly #discriminatory, it's bound to inflame existing tensions & #prejudice:

ramblers.org.uk/-/media/Files/…
And on yet another front, even the @DailyMailUK is predicting a #backlash against @pritipatel's controversial, likely #discriminatory attempt to extend police #StopAndSearch powers:

dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9…
Meanwhile, on the #CultureWars front, HM Opposition got utterly played on ten-year(!) sentences for defacing #WarMemorials...

news.sky.com/story/labour-t…

...given the Bill now defines "memorial" as broadly as "a building", "a garden", or "a bunch of flowers" 🤦🏻‍♂️ ...
And (winding up for now) anyone who's given their kid a #smartphone might care to read & understand Chapter 3 👇 which, as written, would empower ANY strange adult, apart from the person wanting to extract data, to give #permission for YOUR child's phone data to be #extracted...
...which doesn't even get into the utterly spurious notion that "voluntarily provided" and "agreed to the extraction of information from the device" will EVER amount to #FreelyGiven, #InformedConsent for such #intrusion from many adults (e.g. rape victims) in many circumstances.
Some initial thoughts on the new #PublicOrder powers in Clauses 54-60 of the #PCSCBill in @colmocinneide's blog post:

A succinct [Thread] by @AdamWagner1 on #PCSCBill:



N.B. His point about perpetuating powers created under #COVID is one to watch for in EVERY piece of legislation coming forward. Who wants a "#NewNormal" that normalises #abuse and #suppression of rights?
I note @ukhomeoffice issued a slew of so-called "factsheets" on aspects of the #PCSCBill. Unsurprisingly, there's not a single mention of what can be done with the data on #children's phones in its one on #Chapter3 (#DataExtraction):

gov.uk/government/pub…

#ConvenientOmission?
On "serious #annoyance" 👇 - which, as many have pointed out, is the basic *point* of a #protest - it turns out there is a definition in UK law, e.g. in the context of #RestrictiveCovenants against "‘nuisance or annoyance" in #PropertyLaw.

But while "#nuisance" is quite...
...specifically defined in both the #CommonLaw and in the #statutory #nuisance regime set out in Part III of the #EnvironmentalProtectionAct1990 - noting the exceptions in both, i.e. that "one off events are rarely sufficient" and that nuisance is "more than a mere #annoyance"...
...it seems that (risk of) "#annoyance" in the context of the #PCSCBill goes FAR more towards establishing a "right to be #offended" than anything in UK law currently recognises. Which is very, very bad.

There will always be *someone* who takes offence at the focus, if not...
...the means & manner of a protest (else why protest?) and if it's the #police themselves deciding - not e.g. the #Courts, applying a "reasonable person" test - then this'll clearly have a #ChillingEffect on #protest, even if it doesn't end up being used to outright #suppress it.

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More from @EinsteinsAttic

Phil Booth Profile picture
12 Mar
Noting that, just like the #AppsLibrary, #DTAC *still* doesn't have a required section on clinical #efficacy - and that #impacts are much more than just (avoiding) #risks - alongside focusing on the #algorithms and #data, have you considered asking a few more basic questions... Image
...such as:

1) Will the proposed intervention have a direct impact on health, mental health and/or wellbeing?

If so, what specifically is the intended impact and how will it be measured? If not, why are you doing it?

2) Will the proposed intervention interact with or have...
...any impacts on social, economic and/or environmental factors that would 'indirectly' affect health?

If so, what are they and how will they be measured - and, if necessary, mitigated? If not, provide evidence of ALL of the potential impacts you have actually considered...
Read 5 tweets
Phil Booth Profile picture
12 Mar
"We are the #Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. #ResistanceIsFutile."

theverge.com/2021/3/12/2232… Image
So if one-fifth of @Facebook's employees work on #AR/#VR, have all of them done a stint as a content #moderator? And given its toxic business model why doesn't #Facebook have at least as many *employees* (not contractors) working on #ContentModeration as it does AR?
Also, whether you believe #data '#TheNewOil' or that a better analogy is #ToxicWaste, for #BigTech / the #platforms the result's the same.

Using ML/DL/AI/AR/VR to extract value involves energy-intensive processing and doesn't factor in other externalities like cultural damage...
Read 4 tweets
Phil Booth Profile picture
30 Jan
I have a few questions on the whole #Article16 row, and row-back.

Though I understand it's FAR more exciting to report on the inevitable political #PileOn / #AxeGrinding / #CasusBelli, there is actually an agreed Protocol and procedures.

So...
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-558655…
1a) Have folks read #Article16 of the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland?

It's on p13 of this PDF: assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl… and is quite short [left pic].

1b) Have they read Annex 7 [right pic, p62 of PDF] which describes the procedures to be followed?
Assuming the answers to (1a) & (1b) are Yes:

2) Given the EU appears to have considered these to be "exceptional circumstances" was the UK notified via the #JointCommittee, and was all relevant information provided?

(Papers should be here, eventually: ec.europa.eu/info/relations…)
Read 8 tweets
Phil Booth Profile picture
28 Jan
*sigh*

Tony's STILL banging on about #IDcards, nearly 20yrs later - 'cos make no mistake, that's what #VaccinePassports will become.

Just as WWII's [left 👇] became @10DowningStreet/@ukhomeoffice's [right 👇] with a centralised #biometric #NationalIdentityRegister behind it... ImageImage
...so will #YellowCards [left 👇] morph into 'just an #app on your #phone' [right 👇] - claimed to be 'not #mandatory', of course (unless you want to live your life, work or travel...) and with the centralised #biometric #registration Government has wanted all along. ImageImage
So here's a few questions the #HealthPassport headbangers must answer:

1a) When Heathrow re-opens, given (current) #vaccines don't prevent #transmission, aren't people still going to have to be #tested?

1b) If people have to be tested anyway, what's the point of the 'passport'?
Read 6 tweets
Phil Booth Profile picture
27 Jan
"Like 4chan found a Bloomberg Terminal", but with dogs!

@reddit-weaponised #DayTrading against institutional #ShortSellers might be funny, but it's no joke; #disinformation at web scale disrupts #media, #democracy and even the #market...

#InformationRevolution, baby!
P.S. If you've not been following $GME (#GameStop) then @theipaper has a quick explainer:

inews.co.uk/news/business/…
And as with all instances of #MarketManipulation👇, #CuiBono?



Cc: @SEC_Enforcement
Read 7 tweets
Phil Booth Profile picture
1 Nov 20
Apropos of @thesundaytimes article, a few thoughts: firstly, as I tweeted 2 days ago 👇 & in stark contrast to the #transparency around other tech/data intitiatives - *cough* @NHSEngland #DataStore *cough* - the team published a blog on what it was doing:

healthtech.blog.gov.uk/2020/10/29/how…
In this blog, the app team gave an explanation of the latest changes it had made - including a reduction in the #RiskThreshold, which took account of TWO factors: the inclusion of a measure of #infectiousness in the API *and* a new #distance algorithm...

healthtech.blog.gov.uk/2020/10/29/how…
In case folks aren't aware, @Google & @Apple's #ExposureNotification API is quite frequently updated. As the #Android developer pages (and #nhsxCOVID18app's blog) say, the #infectiousness field was only added at v1.6; with functionality changing at 1.7 👇

developers.google.com/android/exposu…
Read 10 tweets

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