InevitableList
We have the power to fine companies up to £18m or 10% of their qualifying worldwide revenue – whichever is greater – and in very serious cases we can apply for a court order to block a site in the UK.
Firstly I’d expect regulators to focus on the big fish rather than this minnow. Secondly losing 10% of revenue isn’t a huge deal whilst any fines larger than that would get the entire news media rallying behind you. Shutting down the site is premature to say the least.
That being said I am surprised that this legislation applies to everyone immediately. You’d think they’d start with a high threshold of say 1 million active monthly users and then reduce that each year as practices and technologies get established. It’s ridiculous to expect hobbyists and small scale operations to be able to meet this burden just as easily as multi-trillion pound corporations.
There are numerous reports of newborns with birth defects being euthanised in NHS hospitals during the Thalidomide crisis. I’m not aware of anyone waiting until the child is one year old to abort. Surely any justification to abort would be identifiable at birth.
The author discusses the impact of the pill at length in her book and I don’t think she identifies as pro-life. My reading of the article was that she would like abortion to be a last resort not a first resort.
I’d prefer for kids to learn to navigate social media whilst they have access to adult supervision and oversight. 16yos aren’t going to listen to their parents’ advice.
There are toilets that analyse your waste and send the results to your doctor. They ID you by scanning your anus since everyone’s anus is unique. Maybe one day the results can be sent to your kitchen and your fridge and airfryer can deny you access to unhealthy foods when your toilet tells them to.
That’s an immature argument. “If you don’t like guns don’t buy one.” “If you don’t like abortion don’t get one.” Maybe we could think a little deeper?
One of the reasons the internet is so centralised is due to network effects. I have a facebook account because everyone else has one and it’s difficult to maintain a social life and a family life if I exclude myself from that space. I can choose not to drive a car, too but again that would make life much harder for myself. Perhaps we could subject these businesses to some basic standards of accountability and oversight and put the public interest ahead of private profit once in a while.
Given that they can rewrite their T&C or sell to facebook at anytime avoiding practices you dislike isn’t practical.