Hurricane Trump is starting to move but it is still too soon to say where exactly it will make its virtual landfall or to predict with any degree of certainty what the consequences will be.  Good or bad.

Thus, rather than engage in endless speculation about what might lie ahead in a still hazy near future, this blog will go a little against the flow and be a bringer of at least some glad tidings. 

I do that ever so slightly tongue in cheek, reminding readers that, not long ago, we were told the only thing that mattered in tech from now on and forever, the only thing worth talking about, now and forever, was the “metaverse” (remember that?). That’s where all the investment was going.  One guy even changed the name of his company on the back of this overexcited frenzy. 

In the world of tech things can pass a lot faster than you think they could or maybe even should. The Tech Bros would do well to remember that before they throw overboard key values they previously told us they held dear. 

Good news on porn

On 15th  January very encouraging noises were coming out of the Supreme Court when it heard arguments in the case brought by the ludicrously named “Free Speech Coalition” against Texas.

The Coalition wants to stop the Lone Star State from enforcing its law requiring age verification for online porn. Apparently around twenty other states have now done something similar so if things go badly for Texas they are likely to go badly for everyone else.

But they didn’t go badly for Texas. “Yeehaw” as I believe they say down there.

By all accounts, in their questioning of counsel for both sides, a clear majority of the Justices seemed to accept that other, earlier methods of trying to protect children from online pornography (filters and parental engagement) had failed. This was particularly concerning because, compared with the last time the Supreme Court considered the matter two things had happened.

The nature of the porn being published has completely changed. Not in a good way. And so has the scale and ease with which it can be accessed, including by very young children.  

Crucially, most Justices seemed to reject the suggestion made by the Coalition that age verification for porn sites unavoidably offends 1st Amendment principles of free speech. It doesn’t, although how age verification is implemented will matter. 

There can be many a slip ‘twixt cup and lip so we must not get carried away. The final written judgement may not appear until nearer the summer. By which time Ofcom will be enforcing the UK’s age verification laws for porn sites.

At least here, things are looking up.

The Brain in Spain

On 22nd January in Davos there was more good news.

Pedro Sánchez, the Prime Minister of Spain, gave a completely brilliant speech  on the current state of the internet and the baleful impact of the major social media platforms.

It’s one of the best expositions by any major European leader. Please read the whole thing. His analysis is spot on.  He highlights three specific, connected points.

First, social media are oversimplifying and polarizing the public debate. Two hundred and eighty characters – or a 30-second video – are not enough to explain almost anything important.

Second, social media are eroding our democracies by fostering misinformation. Every day, our feeds and walls are filled with altered images, flawed data and fake news that distort our perception of reality.

Third, what was supposed to be a space for constructive debate and the free exchange of ideas has become a rigged battlefield…… 

He makes several suggestions about how to address the above.  We should all rally behind Sanchez’s cyber agenda.

“Freedom and democracy are no longer compatible”

In a chilling rider Sanchez reminds us how some of the Tech Bros now think. He quotes Peter Thiel, erstwhile business partner of Elon Musk and major backer of you-know-who. Thiel first expressed the view “freedom and democracy are no longer compatible”  back in 2009. This is the authentic voice of the sovereign individual. He is talking about his freedom. Not yours or mine. Obviously.

Rules and regulations which aim to constrict or confine what the sovereign individual can and cannot do with their wealth in the public space are anathema to them. The state and its institutions should be forced to get out of the way and paltry considerations such as human rights laws are to be delegitimised as a prelude either to getting rid of them altogether or at any rate marginalising them to the point of impotence, for example by starving the relevant enforcement bodies of resources or putting “sympathetic” individuals in charge of them. Or both.

PS In case it did not leap off the page at you, if the Supreme Court sticks to the view that parental engagement and consumer-activated filters have failed to protect children from pornography, that opens up other vistas. Vistas which the child rights lobby have been promoting for a good many years. Too many years.