The stick is very, very simple. Ban the collection, use and resale of cross-site behavioral tracking for advertising purposes. GDPR has teeth, if we just enforce it.
That one change, and Meta, TikTok and Google lose all their traffic leverage. Of course that's precisely why lobbyists want to ensure politicians think it is impossible to enforce.
So, likely confirming many sceptics' view of the Online Safety Act, Ofcom has concluded that in its first nine months it has had no discernible positive impact on the flow of inappropriate & dangerous material reaching children via social media.
As many argued at the time (and as I became convinced of after discussions in my timeline) this was the wrong way to address what remains a serious social problem.
We need a much bigger stick to deal with BigTech!
#politics
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/oct/23/uk-children-just-as-likely-to-have-suffered-harm-on-social-media-despite-crackdown-ofcom-online-safety-act