Matt Gallagher

47% of people think immigration is primarily illegal. There were 4% irregular arrivals in March

New YouGov polling. A monumental failure of our political class to educate, a monumental failure of our media to report fairly, for a generation

It baffles me how the Left, who seem to take decent positions on many things, have got the Online Safety Act so wrong.

Opposition to it is being portrayed as right-wing, whereas it's pure common sense.

It doesn't do what it was designed to do, AND it has tons of negative second-order consequences.

spot on

I haven't heard this, but even if so – seems like enforcement of data law is the crux of the issue.

'Keir Starmer's Palestine Recognition Delay Is Obscene - The UK Must Act Now Without Conditions' We cannot justify waiting a single day more while Israeli forces level Gaza, before finally choosing to act, argues Linsay Taylor

🔴‘Keir Starmer’s Palestine Recognition Delay Is Obscene – The UK Must Act Now Without Conditions’

We cannot justify waiting a single day more while Israeli forces level Gaza, before finally choosing to act, argues Linsay Taylor

bylinetimes.com/2025/08/01/k...

It's up to companies to decide what constitutes "adult content"

Forthcoming piece on this

Smithsonian removes Trump from impeachment exhibit in American History Museum A temporary placard, on display since 2021, described the president's historic impeachments. Officials said the exhibit was restored to an earlier version following a review of legacy content.

Under pressure from the White House, the Smithsonian has removed Trump from the impeachment exhibit at the History Museum.

The exhibit now says that “only three presidents have seriously faced removal,” referring to Johnson, Nixon, and Clinton.

The exhibit now looks the way it did in 2008.

“There is no public register of approved age assurance providers, no requirement for age assurance providers to meet any specific privacy or security standards, and no requirement for platforms to choose trusted or certified providers.”

When I try to go to DMs on bsky

Cuts across the major sites – largely reddit and X.

On Bsky, you need to verify to use DMs! Their verifier is owned by a company that just got fined over $500 million for privacy violations

I think if it was just porn it would be a different story.

Have seen that (non violent) content related to Gaza, LGBT content creators, and other are having posts / pages age-gated.

Good scoop from the Times:

The Online Safety Act is Forcing Brits to Hand Over Personal Data to 'Unregulated' Overseas Corporations With Questionable Privacy Records The age verification services used by social media platforms include a company funded by a Trump-supporting billionaire and a firm set up by former Israeli intelligence officers

Pass over your biometrics, your passport, and financial details to dodgy companies – or accept a child-proof version of the web. (or get a VPN)

Me for @bylinetimes.bsky.social

bylinetimes.com/2025/07/31/t...

This article reflects major concerns of mine

The Online Safety Act is Forcing Brits to Hand Over Personal Data to 'Unregulated' Overseas Corporations With Questionable Privacy Records The age verification services used by social media platforms include a company funded by a Trump-supporting billionaire and a firm set up by former Israeli intelligence officers

🔴Online Safety Act is Forcing Brits to Hand Over Their Data to ‘Unregulated’ Overseas Corporations With Questionable Privacy Records

Age verification firms used by social media platforms include company tied to a Trump-supporting billionaire and a firm set up by former Israeli intelligence officers

The ideology is in fact "what people care about." The two are inextricable.

Serbian architect and Belgrade mayor, Bogdan Bogdanovic, argued the history of the west could be seen as a war waged by the city haters against those who love the city and its diverse cosmopolitanism. I think about that a lot

😳

We are now in an era of technosocial politics where data, ML models, AI etc aren’t just reproducing biases through inattention & lack of oversight; the fascist right is actually well read on this subject, knows how these systems work, and is using them to bake in their explicit biases intentionally

Interesting to note that the Daily Mail couldn’t actually stop going on about migrants, even when there’s a proper feel good front page story.

My co-author paints a vivid portrait of what the media could be.

"In one model, news and information are used to make money and create power. In the other model, money is used to create news and information and share power."

I wonder if leaders will ever admit that smearing all protests to stop the genocide actually contributed to the genocide. Will there ever be that level of self reflection and honesty or are we just going to get fake surprise like this after mass death.

Ponzi schemes pile into other ponzi schemes to boost returns.

British newspapers are exempt from VAT because they're said to serve the public interest.

But the Little Black Book of Press Barons shows that – then and now – they often serve the political agendas of a powerful few.

👉 subscribe.bylinetimes.com/product/the-...

‘Why We Need a Coordinated Media Revolution’ Alternative media platforms cannot thrive in a vacuum and policy reforms will not succeed without grassroots pressure, argues Tom Hardy

‘Why We Need a Coordinated Media Revolution’

Alternative media platforms cannot thrive in a vacuum and policy reforms will not succeed without grassroots pressure, argues Tom Hardy

Andy Burnham: These Dangerous, Alienating Times Call for Radical Change of Our Politics From imposter syndrome and proportional representation, to fixing the fundamentals and the 'incestuous' Westminster media-political class – Labour’s Greater Manchester Mayor believes the right can be ...

🔴 Andy Burnham: These Dangerous, Alienating Times Call for a Radical Change of Our Politics

From imposter syndrome and proportional representation, to fixing the fundamentals and the 'incestuous' Westminster media-political class - @hardeepmatharu.bsky.social meets Labour's Greater Manchester Mayor

102 Dems on GENIUS
78 Dems on CLARITY, which is the crypto bill that would transfer digital asset oversight to the CFTC (who will do nothing)
clerk.house.gov/evs/2025/rol...

Slight amendment: Patricia Ferguson actually spoke **against** PR. My mistake.

A number of MPs responded to the strategy with calls to include electoral reform:

🟠 Sarah Olney MP (LD)
🔴 Alex Sobel MP (Lab)
🔴 Rachel Blake MP (Lab)
🟡 Chris Law MP (SNP)
🔴 Scott Arthur MP (Lab)
🟠 Tom Gordon MP (LD)
⚪️ Shockat Adam MP (Ind)
🔴 Patricia Ferguson (Lab)

🏦 "Will the Minister, consider reviewing - because of the flawed nature of First Past the Post - the elections to this place?"

🪑 This morning, our Chair @alexsobel.co.uk led calls from across the House for the Government to address Westminster's broken voting system