Katy Vaughan

Katy Vaughan

@drkatyvaughan.bsky.social

Senior Lecturer in Law @Swansea Uni. Member of CYTREC, VOX-Pol, Christchurch Call Advisory Network. Legal Ed, Counter-Terrorism, Human Rights, Digital Rights.

359 Followers 340 Following 39 Posts Joined Oct 2024
6 days ago

Follow closely this welcome and really important new lawsuit challenging the Trump administration's policy punishing social media misinformation and hate researchers with immigration consequences.

16 9 0 0
6 days ago
Post image

This is billed as stopping unlawful/pro-terrorist expression, but it's really doubling down on the university Prevent duty, which is about stopping extreme expression not because it is always unlawful, but because of students being impressionable. The OfS is a lousy vehicle for making calls on this.

10 3 2 0
1 week ago
Preview
State of HATE 2026: It Could Happen Here WELCOME TO OUR State of HATE 2026 report – the most comprehensive and analytical guide to the far right in Britain today.This year’s report carries a stark warning. The far right is bigger, bolder, an...

🚨 OUT TODAY: State of HATE 2026

Our annual deep dive into the British far right.

The groups. The networks. The money. The rhetoric. The public mood.

🔎 Explore the report:
hopenothate.org.uk/state-of-hat...

95 73 1 2
1 week ago
Preview
Palestine Action ruling: Human rights organisations call for Ofcom to issue guidance on content takedowns Human rights organisations, academics and writers have written to ask Ofcom to provide immediate guidance to tech platforms following the High Court ruling that the UK Government’s proscription of…

We've called on Ofcom to clear up confusion following the ruling that the Palestine Action ban is unlawful.

We need to know what platforms are expected to do about their duty to remove 'terrorist' content under the Online Safety Act and how new duties will be applied.

Read our open letter ⬇️

29 16 1 0
1 week ago
Preview
Woman 'did not know' full details of Hamas attacks, court hears Jurors hear Hanin Barghouthi was concerned about human rights in her speech on 8 October, 2023.

Just days after the BDN/ABJ judgment in the UK Supreme Court and the jury trial of Hanin Barghouthi for supporting Hamas - BDN in the Supreme Court decision on whether human rights protections constrain the prosecution (which the UKSC rejected) - is underway:

share.google/ZddvG3AwYHln...

1 1 0 0
1 week ago
Graph from NetBlocks showing network connectivity in Iran from February 24, 2026, to March 2, 2026. The y-axis represents normalized connectivity, ranging from 0% to 100%, and the x-axis represents the dates. The green line representing Iran's connectivity normal most of the time period, with a sharp drop on the morning of February 28. The drop in connectivity aligns with nation-scale internet blackout imposed during joint military strikes by the US and Israel. The minimum and current connectivity levels are indicated as 1% and 1%, respectively. The chart has a dark background with a red horizontal arrow labeled 'SHUTDOWN', indicates the period of disruption and includes the NetBlocks logo in the lower left corner.

⚠️ Update: #Iran's internet blackout has entered its fourth day, with the national censorship measure now in place for over 72 hours.

The silencing of authentic Iranian voices is fueling a surge in misinformation as pro-regime accounts fill the void with their own narrative.

63 39 1 3
2 months ago
Preview
Support NetBlocks Let's make sure the world is watching

📢 Free and open internet is a fundamental right: If you're finding our reporting useful during the Iran blackout or any other time, we'd value your support. When authoritarian regimes try to silence the public, let's make sure the world is watching! ko-fi.com/netblocks

37 18 0 0
1 week ago
Preview
Mahmood’s change to refugee status may undermine legal obligations, Law Society says Home secretary has faced backlash for decision to make refugee status in England and Wales temporary

Not only risking violations of international law, yet again, Labour's anti-asylum policies get progressively worse, and worse than the previous government when taken in totality, with this latest PR stunt by Mahmood. 87/

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

12 2 1 1
2 weeks ago

If you'd like to come work for us at Good Law Project we are currently recruiting four new roles!

(Please do share.) 🧵

140 163 5 5
2 weeks ago
Preview
Weronika Galka: Secret proceedings, (mal)administration, and the courts: RA and AA v SSFCDA, MZZ v SSD and SSHD and In the Matter of the SSD [2026] EWCA Civ 3 In early January 2026, the Court of Appeal (Peter Jackson LJ, Elisabeth Laing LJ, and Jeremy Baker LJ) handed down the decision in R (RR and AA) v Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth, and …

Weronika Galka: Secret proceedings, (mal)administration, and the courts: RA and AA v SSFCDA, MZZ v SSD and SSHD and In the Matter of the SSD [2026] EWCA Civ 3 ukconstitutionallaw.org/2026/02/26/w...

3 4 0 0
2 weeks ago

Now a full-length blogpost. “Safety by design or systems for content moderation?” #OnlineSafetyAct www.cyberleagle.com/2026/02/safe...

5 3 1 0
2 weeks ago
Preview
Regulate platforms, not children – Commissioner urges caution over social media bans - Commissioner for Human Rights - www.coe.int Strasbourg 23 February 2026

"Banning children’s access to social media...shifts the responsibility for safety from the platforms that create the environment to the children who navigate it." - Council of Europe High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michael O'Flaherty

74 47 4 6
3 weeks ago

Fantastic analysis of the case by @alangreene.bsky.social

5 4 1 0
1 month ago
Preview
Seven Billion Reasons for Facebook to Abandon its Face Recognition Plans Meta’s analysis that it can avoid scrutiny by releasing a privacy invasive product during a time of political crisis is craven and morally bankrupt. It is also dead wrong.

www.eff.org/deeplinks/20...

4 3 0 0
1 month ago
Preview
Iran Turns to Digital Surveillance Tools to Track Down Protesters

major NYT story on surveillance of protesters - and pretty much anyone seeking access to information - by the Iranian government (the reporting combines tech, china, surveillance & iran expertise)

10 5 0 0
1 month ago
Preview
Commission preliminarily finds TikTok\'s addictive design in breach of the Digital Services Act Today, the European Commission preliminarily found TikTok in breach of the Digital Services Act for its addictive design.

EU tech law

EU Commission preliminary finding that TikTok has breached Digital Services Act re 'addictive design' ec.europa.eu/commission/p...

305 104 4 7
1 month ago
Post image

AI governance should be shaped not just by power, but by participation!

Read this blog by our ED Jason Pielemeier: Stitching AI Governance Together: Measure Twice, Cut Once, reflecting on why participation matters and how we can better weave diverse perspectives into AI governance ⚖️

1 1 1 0
1 month ago
Preview
FBI Investigates Minneapolis Protestor Signal Chats & EU Subjects WhatsApp to DSA Requirements | The Free Flow 1/29/26 U.S. Border Patrol fatally shoots an ICU nurse recording an ICE raid in Minneapolis, EU determines WhatsApp is subject to DSA requirements, radio operators in Belarus face the death penalty, and more.

Free speech depends on spaces where people can speak without fear of the government looking over their shoulder.

🔗 Find out what’s happening to these spaces in this week’s Free Flow newsletter:
www.bedrockprinciple.com/p/fbi-invest...

1 2 0 0
1 month ago
Preview
Iran plans permanent break from global internet, say activists Report claims unrestricted online access will be a ‘government privilege’, limited to individuals vetted by regime

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

1 6 0 2
1 month ago
Preview
How Digital Sovereignty Will Lead to The Slow and Fast Erosion of The Internet Sovereignty is not a synonym for autonomy; it is instead the uncompromising authority to impose a single will upon others.

Iran's recent near-total Internet blackout should give us all pause about what digital sovereignty can mean in practice.

Digital rights expert Farzaneh Badiei explores these tensions in a new guest post at The Bedrock Principle: www.bedrockprinciple.com/p/how-digita...

0 1 0 0
2 months ago

"Internet connection is a human right, and it should not be left in the hands of irresponsible governments or private actors.:

0 0 0 0
2 months ago

Reminder that in the UK an incoming radical, populist government would have immediate access to immense, unchecked executive power.

And the current government is doing nothing to protect us from that.

1,059 550 26 0
2 months ago
Preview
Ugandans, Iranians turn to Dorsey's messaging app Bitchat in web crackdowns A little-known offline messaging app launched by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey has emerged as a key lifeline for Ugandans cut off from the internet ahead of a contentious election that could extend P...

Ugandans, Iranians turn to Dorsey's messaging app Bitchat in web crackdowns
www.reuters.com/business/med...

0 0 0 0
2 months ago
Screenshot of proposed amendment, with explanatory statement as follows:
"This new clause would require the Secretary of State to take action to promote children' wellbeing in relation to their use of social media by commissioning advice from the Chief Medical Officers and introducing regulations to prevent under 16s from accessing social media."

Proposed amendment to the UK's Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill would ban under 16s from "all regulated user-to-user services" – much broader than Aussie social media ban bills.parliament.uk/bills/3909/s...

HT Neil Brown's blog decoded.legal/blog/2025/12...

#censorship #openweb #techpolicy

11 8 5 2
2 months ago
Ban a Pro-Palestinian Group? The U.K. Government Thought Few Would Care.

In this story, I reported how counter-terror police warned the Palestine Action ban was creating "a lot of noise in the system that risks detracting from our core mission"

New stats show it drove terror arrests up from 248 to 1,886 in the last year
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/11/w...

105 60 5 1
3 months ago

Given the BBC is publicly funded, this is Donald Trump suing you & me.

It’s a pathetic cry-bully attack on journalism by a wannabe dictator & an attack on every British person.

And our far right politicians & pundits are cheering him on, of course. #r4today

710 204 42 8
3 months ago

12 killed, one offender killed and one in custody according to the NSW premier at ongoing press conference. Thoughts are with Australia’s jewish community as they celebrate Hanukkah. The investigation is just beginning - there are things we don’t have answers to.

22 13 1 2
3 months ago

LISTEN: Those “year-in-review” insights from your apps might seem fun to see and share, but they’re a symptom of the surveillance culture that permeates the internet and threatens your privacy, EFF’s @irmck.bsky.social told @KCBSRadio.bsky.social.
www.audacy.com/podcast/kcb...

125 47 1 6
3 months ago

Attention #DigitalServicesAct nerds, we've published a position paper for consultation on Article 21 Out-of-court dispute settlement 👇

2 2 0 0