Social Media Regulators and Musk Go to War

The Telecommunications regulator Ofcom have stated that they are soon receive new powers from the UK government giving them the legal right to ban social media platforms, or to take legal action against tech bosses that do not appear to be complying with certain rules of how information and especially social media is to be delivered to audiences in the UK. One such platform that faces a potential ban in the UK is the social media concern X (formerly known as Twitter) . The owner of X - Elon Musk has been recently criticised for his handling of 'disinformation' on X and his clash with UK Prime minister Keir Starmer over far-right activity and interest in inciting riots. The X social media platform is under scrutiny for "spreading harmful content and unrest".

The impact of the possibility of certain social media, news and information platforms being banned in Countries, has sparked much concern publicly surrounding the Big Brother theory. Needless to say, that there are many people that do not agree with being censored and are of the opinion that 'regulation' and monitoring of their personal Internet activity and use, can be monitored themselves sufficiently without the need for third party laws controlling them. The owner of X - Elon Musk publicly stated that he plans to challenge any 'attacks' upon the decisions he has made about running X, and has suggested to users of the X social media platform to consider the use of VPN's to access “X” as a way of continuing their personal surfing freedoms.

- Since year 2019 at least 46 governments worldwide have imposed social media and messaging app restrictions. On average the thirteen countries restricts social media access to their inhabitants each year.

- In the majority of cases long-term social media and messaging app disruption cases have been registered in the continent of Asia

- In 32 out of 68 cases where X was banned by countries, it was outcome of political turmoil in the banning country

- Countries that currently restrict X include China, Russia, Pakistan, Iran, North Korea, Myanmar and Turkmenistan

- media stories have circulated that 37 countries have either temporarily or permanently banned X since year 2015

- The worldwide restrictions of X have had affect to over 3 billion people globally