John Redwood:
I think we are all united in wanting to stop fake and damaging reviews, which are so unfair, but has the hon. Gentleman thought about how we would actually do it? Defining them, and deciding who judges that they are such, is not easy.
Richard Thomson:
The right hon. Member is absolutely right that it is not easy, but that does not mean it is something that we should avoid trying to tackle, or that we should not try to come up with a way of improving the competitive environment. I am certainly more than happy to engage on an open and constructive basis with anyone about how we might do so.
May 19, 2023
Good morning.
Meddling for meddling’s sake. Another ‘Jobsworth’ making a living off the taxpayer.
May 19, 2023
After all these years they really havenât learned a thing have they?
Maybe just leave people alone? We had a proper âmarket placeâ until they foisted this digital one on us.
The most important freedom is the freedom to trade.
See how they have eroded it to nothing.
May 19, 2023
Why stop âdamagingâ reviews?
If a product or service is at fault reviews are needed to inform others. Truthful reviews prevent other users from being misled. They donât damage the providerâs business; the provider fault damaged that.
The reviewer simply revealed the providerâs reputation.
May 19, 2023
Anyone that is using the internet is seeking some sort of approval for themselves or their ideas, as such they have by default invited others to interact with them.
People that complain they are abused on-line have to remember they invited others in, just as they have a right to be there as part of their own self promotion.
There remains choice, you do not need to use the internet period. Where comments are permitted(Social Media) you are given the opportunity by the provider to block others, from reading or interacting.
Driving people underground, is exactly what this bill does, it doesnât stop miss information.
As Boris Johnson stated while Mayor of London, to paraphrase, it is better that dissenters were out in the open, than driven underground to become far more dangerous.
And as Sir John has said who is the right person to decide what today’s thoughts should be, who defines âfree speechâ as often in this sound-bite driven World, the meaning behind what is written at the time is not always what some might want to interpret it to be when it doesn’t fit their view.
The very thought that the Political Class believe they have the right to define the thinking of others. To only have those that accept what their own personal views as having a voice should be seen as abhorrent
This is aâ Virtue Seeking Billâ from those that wish to manipulate others. Lets not for get that come the GE the majority that now call themselves Conservative wont be in Parliament and some other Political Class will take up thought manipulation.
This silliness should stop now âhow about the economy stupidâ, how about a Parliament interested in creating a dynamic, resilient and self reliant UK. How about Parliament getting to grips with were has all the extra tax stolen from their voters gone. This is just a sound-bite diversion from the brain dead
May 19, 2023
I have just made a comment re damaging reviews in the first question as it appears on this site. Refusal to give references, reviews by customers who simply didn’t like a person for a silly reason , people who twist the truth to try and empower themselves with expertise they are in effect stealing . No one wants to be controlled by thought police but there is an ill wind today where competition doesn’t mean trying to be better but lying and doing everything to bring others down . It s so rife that lawyers couldn’t begin to touch on the damaging effects to families, employees , workers and honourable people and especially to those who cannot pay high prices for legal representation.
It has been suggested that you John are only interested in the business aspects of society yet without the people who ethically I consider to be similarly of great importance business would not grow. The racial tensions exist also as we Brits are slammed down for any remark which can be taken out of context often due to a lack of understanding of literate English from non natives and have to pay dearly for their misunderstanding as we simply and forcefully lack ethical parity .
May 19, 2023
The internet is a wonderful place. Ask, or search, and you will find people who have made a reasonable evaluation of products and services: often their reviews and comments can highlight aspects that you may not have thought about, and such comments are often found in specialist forums rather than at sites making online sales (although some do have some useful product reviews contributed by customers). You do have to weed out content that is not useful, but it is better that you do that for yourself rather than allow AI and search engines (use more than one if you are not getting useful answers) to impose biassed opinions on you. In times gone by we could rely on local retailers to offer good advice because they hoped for repeat custom and word of mouth recommendation, and they would also value feedback on customer experience.
May 19, 2023
I guess we need to teach people how to search and how to evaluate what they find. The awkward thing is that government doesn’t really want us to do that: they would prefer we accept their received wisdom without question.
May 19, 2023
Static shop based businesses have to pay business rates, bin collection rates and other town costs such as decorations what are your government proposing internet businesses pay for all this extra cost of policing? Surely the cost is to born by the businesses wanting protection, not the general public who may not choose to buy online?
May 19, 2023
The UK Government and Parliament is again being overtaken by the fast pace of the Internet World and their obsession that what ever happens, they (the Government) and what they call the authorities should have unfettered access to peoples private and personal data.
Another even bigger danger has been foisted on peoples privacy by the use of what is called AI, the likes of ChatGPT, MS Copilot, and so on. These are primarily there to create large data models, to do that they track the individuals using the facilities and monitor their keystrokes etc.
As this private and personal data has already been shown to be out in the âwildâ the likes of Apple, Samsung, Verizon, Bank of America, Citi, Deutsche Bank, Goldman, Wells Fargo, and JPMorgan have so far announced the blocking of AI. Tech Companies didnât like their working IP turning up elsewhere and the Banks have got concerned as this keystroke tracking has meant customer details have been turning up were they shouldnât be. The list goes on.
The UK Government in this, to âVirtue Signalâ something they cant honestly control goes the opposite way it enhances the loss of control of all privacy in the UK. Is that what Government is there for?
May 19, 2023
All of this is getting close to counting the amount of angels on the end of a pin. It’s pretty complex, time-consuming stuff. When it comes to Digital, Parliament needs to focus on how it can help, even more, the High Tech Entrepreneurs of the Future. With the entrepreneurs creating high quality jobs with high skills and high brand exports abroad.
No doubt, it will be these high tech entrepreneurs who will be able to resolve many of the problems that government is trying to address with money to be made out of it.
But for now, the government needs to figure out how to help young high entrepreneurs more (by looking at case studies from abroad for starters).