The Duran Podcast - Starmer's mechanism to control UK internet

Episode Date: August 10, 2025

Starmer's mechanism to control UK internet

All right, Alexander, let's talk about the UK's Online Safety Act. And this is an act which is causing a lot of debate. So we are going to tell us about this Online Safety Act and what it's all about. And I believe it's also, I don't want to say connected, but it follows up on some legislation coming out of Australia, and it may be indicative of some things that could be happening in the United States or in Canada or elsewhere. So I think this is an important act to discuss, because maybe it's going to take us to a place of more online censorship, centralization, banning of speech.

Anyway, your thoughts on this act. You are absolutely correct. And I think the first thing to say about that and goes directly to the point that you've made is that the UK is Britain is a fashion setter. Where it goes with things like this, well, others look at it and they often copy it. And I know that people in the European Union are looking at it very closely and people in other places are looking at it very closely. and people in the United States is looking at it very closely. And when I see people,

we know which people, people who basically want to control what you see and what you read. Now, this is a perfect example of modern British legislation. The Stama administration has taken this to a new level, but we were already creeping in this direction for some time. But if you remember,

when Stama was elected, I said we should expect a lot more of this. I think we were saying this before Starma was elected, actually. And of course, it's coming. And basically, this act is intended to control, to regulate internet content, and it does so in all kinds of ways. And as it's so often the way today, in order to get public acceptance of it,

it's been packaged and sold and explained as intended to protect minors children. It's always this way. I mean, you do this all the time. Now, what it does is it sets up all sorts of mechanisms where people who publish content on the internet, if that content could notionally cause somebody psychological harm or injury or lead them astrayans or all kinds of ways. Anyway, they can be regulated. They might have to give personal information about themselves.

They may be obliged to put all sorts of restrictions on who can view this content, which is very onerous and very expensive and very complicated for some sites to do, for many sites to do. And ultimately, of course, more severe legal sanctions can be imposed upon somebody who doesn't do these things. And already we're hearing reports that across the country, special units within the police

are being set up to investigate and regulate and enforce this act. So you can see that the police are becoming involved and there's all sorts of prosecutions, I'm sure, coming online before long, coming along the line before long. So what does it does?

What does it do? First of all, as I said, it's supposed to protect miners. It is incredibly, incredibly loosely worded. And it requires that certain types of actions, well, first of all, there has to be a situation where you publish material. You have to publish certain material. you have to believe that that material is false, that the material is likely to do someone psychological harm, and then, as I said, you fall under the scope of the act. Now, it is, again, so vaguely and loosely worded that, I mean, every one of these concepts that I've just described are open to any kind of interpretation. you can imagine that the police will take the most exceptional and strong views about, you know, they will take the most, shall we say, illiberal views, the most unfree views of how these rules should be regulated. And initially, it was discussed as being intended to combat pornography, which is surprising

because there's already regulations about pornography. But already we can see that online discussion, for example, about immigration issues, about religious and racial intolerance, all of these kinds of things, are falling within the scope of this act already. And there is government guidance that it can be used to patrol and to do these things. And the population is responding. And we've had a massive surge in the UK of people taking, are now acquiring VPNs, for example. There's talk about the government banning the use of VPNs in Britain. The government says that they're not going to do that yet,

but they're already looking for ways to restrict VPNs. And they're talking about contact. the platforms to make it perhaps more difficult for apps that enable people to have the EPNs to be operated as well. So it's all about censorship. It's all about media control. It seeks to do that which was already being done. In other words, to prevent minors accessing pornography and things of that kind. But the reality is, this is, This is not what it's about at all. It's basically another mechanism to censor and to control internet content and to do so in a way that conforms with the general views of the authorities, of the permanent government of Britain and of the political establishment here.

In a summary, that's what it is. Well, they started this with the banning of Russian media, didn't they? Absolutely, of course. Yeah, when they banned all Russian media. and we talked about it back then that this is a very slippery slope. Yes. Once you allow them to just come out and say, we're just going to ban everything from Russia,

all media from Russia, including the English language media, which could be read by people in the UK, you know, it was a given that they were going to go down this route eventually. So they start with banning everything coming from Putin. And then now they're moving to protect, protecting children, and in two years, it's going to be because, you know, we have to protect

something else. We have to do this for some other reason. We're going to ban Chinese websites and media. Then we're going to ban Iranian and then whatever, right? They've already done that with the Iranians. The Chinese are coming next. The Chinese are coming. I think it's only a question of time.

But, you know, and not so much, I mean, these are the big international. They ban anyone criticizing labor. or the conservative. Exactly, exactly. Or undermining democracy or whatever rule of law or whatever it is. Exactly. I mean, bear in mind, I mean, we have a whole lot of other acts going all the way back to the Terrorism Act 2000, which are also being used in all sorts of ways.

So, I mean, all of this dovetails. And we were talking also about the way in which public order acts are being increasingly used as well to limit protests. And there's more acts constantly coming. There's now an almost assembly line of acts that are passing one after the other. And, you know, this is, as you rightly said, we started with Russian media. But before long, we're going to get an awful lot of other things as well. And people, of course, are being arrested.

There was a case quite recently. I think it was in Wales where the Welsh police arrested to elderly people, 175, 180, because they were involved in supporting, well, in protesting certain things that were going on in the Middle East. You know, I have to be careful. I already have to be careful what I say about these things, which tells you about some of the things that are going on in Britain. But the key thing to understand is that the people who are going to be least-of-fitting, affected in some ways initially by these acts are precisely teenagers who are looking to access some of the information, because they're the people who are most skilled at getting VPNs.

I'm saying nothing that isn't being widely acknowledged and talked about in the media here. Yeah, there were the useful idiots that were cheering on the banning of Russian media. Yeah. They just completely fell for it. And I imagine there's going to be people that are cheering on this, this ban as well that's protecting. Oh, yes. Protecting you. Well, it's all going to, until it's all going to be turned on them, right?

Eventually. Eventually it's the useful idiots that are going to be the first ones that the state goes after. I think Lenin said something along those lines, right? Or the Bolsheviks said that it's the useful idiots, that they're the ones that are usually dealt with first once they have full control. of the system, right? Yes. Yeah. Has this been passed?

Is this being enforced? I mean, where are we in all of this? And how is it enforced? How does this become enforced? It is law. It came into, I think it started to become active law about a week ago. And it is going to be enforced increasingly by the police. There are other agencies that enforce it to.

But we're getting reports increasingly that, as I said, special units of the police have been created across the country whose job it will be to monitor what is being published in particular localities and regions and to come around and enforce and presumably ultimately bring prosecutions and use the whole force of the law in order to, as I said, discipline and punish people who are not complying with this law. So it's going to be enforced and it's going to be enforced in the toughest way. With full use of the police, as we've seen the government do in many other, much of the other legislation of this kind that it's been introducing. As I said, this all started under the previous government. Well, it actually, I correct that. It started under Blair. Blair began this process.

but then it accelerated significantly under the previous government. But as I said, with Stama, I mean, the floodgates have opened. And legislation of this kind is now pouring through Parliament basically with minimal discussion. Remember, he's got a big majority and the Conservatives generally accept and support this kind of legislation anyway. So it's just pouring out. and as I said, more and more powers have been given all the time. And of course, the irony, of course it's not really an irony at all. It's exactly what you would expect is that the Prime Minister, Kirstama, was a human rights lawyer.

And of course, he is embracing, he's promoting legislation of exactly this kind. I've expressed my many views about the human rights community, the lawyers here who do that kind of thing. And the fact that this is happening, now that one of them is Prime Minister doesn't surprise me at all. So is there a party in the UK that is against this? Are there politicians that are against us? Because it sounds like both Labour and Conservative are for this. So is there anyone that's standing up against us? Nigel Farage has said, if he's elected, he'll repeal it. And I mean, I think this is now of a compelling reason. Why, what I want to vote for? Nigel Farage. But, I mean, the reform UK have come out clearly against all this legislation.

Now, a new left-wing party has just been created, led by Corbyn again. I don't know what their stance about this is going to be, but I would be surprised if they don't speak out against it as well for two reasons. Firstly, because it's going to be used against them in exactly the way that you said. But secondly, because they get a disproportionate amount of their support from young people, and young people particularly don't like this. How is the European Union citizen going to stop something like this from coming into force? Because at least in the UK, you can deal with the government.

I mean, you have a government that you allegedly, supposedly, You voted for the government, right? You're a democracy or whatever. At least you have a government that you can hold accountable for this. And you have options to vote someone else into power that says they're going to repel this, like for rush. So at least you have that avenue to deal with this if you're a citizen in the UK. But if you're in the European Union, and the EU says, oh, look at what the UK is doing.

That's a good law. We're going to enforce that as well, which you know they're going to do. How do you deal with it? If you're a member state, a citizen of a member state in the EU, when you don't have any way to vote out the people that have put laws like this in place. Well, that's the nature of the EU. You can't. I put it very simply.

If the EU Commission proposes something like this and the European Council votes it and the European Parliament, which we all know is very strange institution and isn't anchored in any nation state votes for it too. And it becomes a regulation. If it becomes part of EU law, then it is enforceable across the entire union. And local parliaments, local governments, can't set it aside because EU law is supreme. It takes priority over local national law. So, you know, you can win an election in, say, Italy, you could say, I absolutely don't agree with this law. But that doesn't make any difference because your courts and your police are required to enforce it. So in other words, European Union citizens are screwed.

Absolutely. If Ursula decides to implement something like this, which we know they're kicking around and they're discussing and they're chomping at the bits to implement something like this. I mean, more centralization and power in their hands. Absolutely. They're going to jump at this. And more unaccountable power as well, because as I said, ultimately they can do this. And as I said, there's no mechanism in Europe.

If it's ever brought into existence, there's no real mechanism to say, set it aside. As I said, the European law, the acquies, is binding on all European member states. The only way out of it is to leave the European Union. And so far, the only country to stump that is written. And we know how difficult that proved to be and how incomplete that has proved to be. And don't, it's no coincidence or chance that, as I said, this assembly line. of legislation of this kind is now happening under British Prime Minister Kirstama, who is known to be a fervid pro-European, who wants to take Britain into the European Union. In fact, I would not be surprised if at some point we start hearing the argument made that one reason why we need to rejoin the European Union is precisely so that we can take advantage of the laws protecting minors from things, people like that, that the European Union is passing, so as to protect them from dangerous ideas of repealing these laws proposed by people

like Nigel Farage. I mean, don't be surprised if we get that. The other thing to say about this, and I think this is something that really does need to be said in this program is that the situation in Britain is getting daily worse. Now, a friend of mine, a very, very close friend of mine, has been pushing back a lot in discussions I've had about the situation in Britain and specifically about the situation in London. She was recently in London. She was very distressed by some of the things that she saw.

And we had a conversation over the weekend and she told me as much. We are in a very, very rapid decline in Britain. Economic, societal, at many, many levels. And of course, partly the reason why all this legislation is being rammed through at such speed is precisely because the government is very uneasy about the fact that more and more people are talking about these things. Yeah, the more things collapse, the more they're going to want to retain control. But just a final question. legally, is this, is this possible? Like, is this feasible, these types of laws legally? Like, are people going to be challenging this? Can this be challenged in courts? You know, what do you say

to the argument that there's, I mean, I've seen interviews of UK MPs saying that this is the only way they can protect children from, from bad things on the internet. So they have to pass these laws. I mean, legally, how does this stack up? This is a very good question. Now, a couple of weeks ago, again, with minimal discussion, the government passed an act through Parliament, which basically declared a particular organization. I'm not going to name it because there might be questions about that particular organization,

which takes particular concerns about the Middle East and about Gaza. it was banned and it was banned because it was supposedly engaging in illegal activities, seriously legal activities, which is debatable. Anyway, members of that organisation have now gone to the High Court and they've obtained from a judge, Mr. Justice Chamberlain, permission to bring a judicial review on the basis that this law is contrary to articles, I think it's 10 and 11, of the European Convention on Human Rights, essentially the ones that protect free speech.

So this is an important case, and we will see how it goes. Now, the one thing I would say is that Mr. Justice Chamberlain strikes me as a particularly fair-minded and decent judge. I don't know him. he became a judge after I stopped working in legal matters. But what I've seen of his cases and of his decisions has always made me think that he's an impressive and decent judge. I cannot be confident at all that other judges will take the same view.

Because bear in mind, if we are placing everything now on the protections that the European Convention on Human Rights is providing. Freedom of speech, for example, under the European Convention on Human Rights is a qualified right. The government is entitled to impose restrictions on freedom of speech if these are supposedly compatible with a democratic society. So you see, it all goes round in circles. It is not comparable to the First Amendment of the Constitution and the United States, which provides much stronger protections. And some of these acts, the latest, the Online Safety Act, I'm afraid I think that is not going to be challenged successfully in the courts in the same way. I mean, the very fact that it's been presented as protecting children is going to.

to make the High Court in particular very, very careful about challenging it head on. And the courts anyway in Britain tend to be very deferential to Parliament and to the government. They don't really like to set aside whole acts of Parliament. In fact, I can't remember a single case where anything like that was ever done. Okay. We will end the video there, the durand.com. We are on Rumble, Odyssey, Bichute, Telegram, RockFit, and X, and go to the Duran Shop, pick up some merch like what we are wearing in this video update. There is a link in the description box down below. Take care.