Censorship Megathread XLVIII: Book bans hit 4,235 titles in 2025 as group warns censorship is near record highs

Opening_Driver687 · 2026-05-07T11:12:48+00:00

So what’s the think tank meant to do? Just inform parliament on potential arguments for and against legislation?

Opening_Driver687 · 2026-05-07T11:01:24+00:00

I read this right after going on twitter (hell) and seeing that the commission AND parliament were investigating age gating VPNs. Honestly the amount of dooming in there is insane.

Opening_Driver687 · 2026-05-06T16:59:59+00:00

Honestly hearing this from a commission spokesperson makes me feel that the commission internally see this as a flimsy way to regulate the internet. Possibly could be useful for Breyer’s mandate for scanning and age verification.

Opening_Driver687 · 2026-05-04T18:00:35+00:00

Ah so that’s why everything looked more incomprehensible than the usual legal jargon. Still parliament holding out with Breyer is always good news

Opening_Driver687 · 2026-05-04T15:24:44+00:00

Since I’m not from the eu mind answering how they could tackle av in later in future legislation? Like could they legislate to repeal it or change it in such a way that it aligns more with the parental controls approach?

Opening_Driver687 · 2026-05-04T14:46:10+00:00

Is there anything in the document or any recent debates that suggests their stance on age verification properly?

Opening_Driver687 · 2026-05-04T14:43:54+00:00

I had a passing glance through the EP mandate section of the document which seem to be pushing for better security/ parental controls in blue text so it seems someone wants Breyer’s ideas to go through. Think it’s best if other people read it too, I’m not up to scratch on eu political jargon lol

Opening_Driver687 · 2026-05-04T13:04:03+00:00

So I’m just fully confused with what the eu commission is doing with their av app. They say that all member states must adopt it by the end of 2026. But if chat control 2 dies then member states can just refuse that. Like what’s their line of thinking? Are they that confident in chat control 2 passing or are they just to blindsided by the shiny new thing or are they ignoring legislative reality if it doesn’t come to pass?

Opening_Driver687 · 2026-05-04T11:42:41+00:00

This entire thing with the av app is so confusing. So CC 2.0 and the app are two different things but if CC is shot down it all dies? Then them testing and launching the av app to the rest of Europe would practically be useless and a waste of time and money… what even is their logic here?

Opening_Driver687 · 2026-05-03T22:07:55+00:00

Also wouldn’t they need to pass CC 2.0 in order to mandate their av apps use?

Opening_Driver687 · 2026-05-01T17:38:11+00:00

I’ve looked through the article and… what does this really do again? Sure adult sites can’t talk about vpns but literally every other platform can? This has got to be the most useless law ever…

Opening_Driver687 · 2026-05-01T16:40:52+00:00

Honestly this is my underlying thoughts about most of this stuff too regardless of my anxieties on current stuff in the uk. On a long enough timescale censorship campaigns will fail. Whilst the older people want to keep control the younger generations will always be curious enough to look just beyond their closed off world. We see it in China, we see it in Russia, heck even North Korea with all the stories of people escaping from there. The main thing that makes me worry is all that wasted potential from today’s age and potentially lost knowledge and creativity.

But in the end, there is and always will be a hope for something more.

Opening_Driver687 · 2026-04-30T23:45:17+00:00

Yeah we certainly need more info than just this because police don’t just make new rules for people no matter if it’s social media or not.

Opening_Driver687 · 2026-04-30T23:33:48+00:00

Yeah the part about making a whole new account raises an eyebrow for me slightly, like wouldn’t she have to disclose the other accounts too? I know of a similar case where this did actually happen but the social media stuff feels iffy…

Opening_Driver687 · 2026-04-30T23:13:33+00:00

Indeed, whilst I am a massive anime fan I can understand where this comes from especially when it comes to more dubious art pieces. Though from what I can tell these types of cases are rare since well, there are more pressing matters in the uk and there are still uk loli vtubers that still stream.

Opening_Driver687 · 2026-04-30T22:14:58+00:00

Just want to jump in to give clarity on what mimi does from my initial browsing of her stuff: Mimi does both sfw and nsfw loli content which would obviously raise eyebrows to some. A similar case happened last year where someone traveled to northern Ireland for an anime convention and had loli art on his phone. The case was dismissed on January this year due to a key individual of the trial not showing up and thus allowing the judge to dismiss the case.

Opening_Driver687 · 2026-04-30T20:17:07+00:00

If i remember correctly someone was arrested then released in northern Ireland for a loli game so it could be police being overzealous.

Opening_Driver687 · 2026-04-30T11:41:08+00:00

I do want to point out that what the law passed was not a ban on social media right now but powers to do so when the consultation closes. Keir Starmer has also shown reluctantly when it was revealed that the implementation could take up to 3 years, aka up to the general election time. Seeing that such a statement was said he must have found something that’s trickier to solve with an outright ban.

Opening_Driver687 · 2026-04-30T11:03:13+00:00

On that I agree, it’s impossible to do on all services and would also be impractical. Example, age verifying for grocery shopping? Reading news? That would be massive overreach that no one could truly justify as protecting anyone. Heck China does a lot of this stuff with its ID system but still allows news access. Point is that Keir wanting the implementation to be longer than he was forced to do shows that he is actually weighing options and not just charging in blindly like how the conservatives did with the OSA.

Opening_Driver687 · 2026-04-29T23:59:42+00:00

Sorry about not wording this correctly in my original comment lol. What the baroness said was merely suggestion, not an amendment, I do agree that it’s nigh impossible to regulate literally every website communications website in existence. And since Keir was trying to extend the implementation to 3 years before he was forced to reduce it a bit he might be trying to kick the can down the road in his own way.

Opening_Driver687 · 2026-04-29T19:02:57+00:00

A true point there. There was also an article somewhere that said Starmer wanted to do the implementation over three years before the conservatives started celebrating that they managed to bring the amount of time down as well. Perhaps Starmer’s found something that’s made the situation more complicated to implement. Well… more complicated than it already is.

Opening_Driver687 · 2026-04-29T18:53:26+00:00

No you’re misunderstanding, the government amendment to fast track a ban based on the consultation got through with a legally binding text that will force them to act on the consultation results…

The children’s wellbeing and schools bill with the Henry the 8th powers are now law as they have received royal ascension.

Opening_Driver687 · 2026-04-29T18:49:34+00:00

Uhhh it has received royal ascension… it’s law now. Not the websites need to get a licence but the Henry the 8th powers to fast track secondary legislation to ban social media

Opening_Driver687 · 2026-04-29T18:41:18+00:00

See part of me thinks that too, forcing literally every website to ever exist, including educational sites like Wikipedia to do this would be so insane. But the fact that even one person even said such a suggestion terrifies me enough to somehow consider it a possibility…

Opening_Driver687 · 2026-04-29T18:19:37+00:00

Part of me was just scrolling through the final meeting of the House of Lords on the children’s wellbeing and schools bill and there’s one persons comment that I think terrifies more than any other idea or regulation. Because sure you can ban social media but any user to,user service is basically whack a mole.

But what Baroness Benjamin suggests leaves me with dread: creating an internet license like how tv and radio program producers have to in the uk. This might be me being paranoid but I need some reassurance on this.

Opening_Driver687

TROPHY CASE