Lisa Nandy has said that the social media ban for under-16s is just the starting point. She praised Keir Starmer and Liz Kendall for beginning the process of increasing online censorship, and welcomed Andy Burnham’s decision to accelerate it. At Labour Party conference, Nandy said the ban was “a staging post to what must be a very interventionist state, policing and regulating the online space so that people are safe”. We should recognise that this is no longer just about protecting children online. It is about giving the state greater control over what we can and cannot say online. We are living in Orwell’s 1984.

The Government has shown its hand. Culture, Media and Sport Secretary Lisa Nandy has warned that the Government’s online safety crackdown is far from over, describing the social media ban for under-16s as only a “staging post”. She has vowed to go further, saying: “We shouldn’t accept that this is the end.” And it gets worse. Ahead of her conference speech, Nandy said the social media ban is “a staging post to what must be a very interventionist state, policing and regulating the online space so that people are safe”. Nandy has just said the quiet part out loud. The state is already far too interventionist, flagging people who criticise the Government and its policies online. In the last five years, 62,199 people have been arrested for things they have said, both online and offline. Let’s be honest: this is no longer solely about protecting children online. It is about the state gaining greater control over what people say online. Nandy praised former Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and former Digital Secretary Liz Kendall for introducing the social media ban earlier this summer. She also acknowledged a “step change” in the Government’s approach since Andy Burnham took over in July. Nandy has confirmed what we already knew: Andy Burnham’s Government will go further with online censorship. Read more below 👇

🚨🚨 Social media posts criticising Government policy are being monitored and logged by officials. Metro has obtained a list of 77 critical posts recorded by the Standards and Compliance Unit (StaCU), which oversees the Government’s Prevent programme. Established in 2024, StaCU is an “opaque” body set up to handle complaints about Prevent made on X and Reddit. But it appears officials are also scouring the internet for criticism of the programme. The posts include comments from ordinary people, many of whom would never expect Government officials to be monitoring their social media. A significant number were flagged for describing Prevent as “biased”. One X user made the list after calling its training “complete bullshit”. How can Britain claim to be a liberal democracy when officials monitor and log posts criticising Government policies and programmes? More than 62,000 people have been arrested for speech-related offences in the past five years, including over social media posts. Every day, Britain feels more like George Orwell’s 1984. And this may be just the beginning. Andy Burnham’s National Centre for Information Defence has been billed as a tool to counter information warfare from Russia. But he has also said it should address “counter-narratives” about Britain. That raises serious concerns about whether it could be used to target criticism of Government policy and its handling of issues such as mass, uncontrolled migration. As with so many secretive monitoring bodies, transparency is lacking. This revelation raises further questions about free speech, the right to protest and the right to criticise the Government. This is deeply chilling. Read more below 👇