#RowanAtkinson’s 2012 defence of free speech = his whole-hearted support for #ReformSection5 🇬🇧

Brief Context:
• insult construed as illegal under #1986PublicOrderAct
• the successful campaign achieved reform of #Section5 of Public Order Act

Bravo 🙌
https://youtu.be/BiqDZlAZygU

Note: the Public Order Act continues to serve an important purpose to protect from racial or religious hate speech (verbal, written, signage) that is threatening or abusive (amongst other aspects)

Hypothetically there's another way to discipline Amazon's appetites as it gorges itself on all of us, buyer or seller: regulation. Much of Amazon's conduct falls under the broad terms "unfair and deceptive," which the #FTC has broad authority to prohibit and punish under #Section5 of the #FTCAct.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/10/the-courage-to-govern/#whos-in-charge

7/

Consumer groups weren't alone in sounding the alarm over the deteriorating conditions in the airline sector. In 2022, dozens of state attorneys general - Democrats and Republicans - sent open letters to Buttigieg begging him to use his broad powers as Secretary of Transport to hold the airlines accountable.

What are those powers? Well, the big one is USC40 Section 41712(a), the "unfair and deceptive" authority modeled on #Section5 of the #FTCAct.

9/

Nevertheless, noncompetes have trundled on, with neither Congress nor the administration having courage to act - until now. Khan's proposed rule bypasses Congressional inaction by invoking powers that she already has, under #Section5 of the #FederalTradeCommissionAct.

Section 5 gives the FTC broad powers to prohibit "unfair methods of competition" - an incredibly broad power to wield, and one that the FTC hasn't bothered to use since the 1970s (!):

https://casetext.com/case/national-petroleum-refiners-assn-v-f-t-c

15/

Mary Ashley Salvino writes:

"If the Federal Trade Commission were a major league baseball team, it might be fair to view 2022 as a rebuilding year regarding its privacy enforcement authority. 2023, on the other hand, might just be the season that marks the FTC’s long-awaited return to a privacy authority winning streak.

[...]

2023 could be a banner year for FTC enforcement endeavors, particularly in the areas of algorithmic disgorgement remedies, child online privacy, unfair data practices, and deceptive digital patterns."

Read her analysis at https://news.bloomberglaw.com/bloomberg-law-analysis/analysis-ftc-privacy-authority-is-poised-for-breakthrough-year

#FTC #Privacy #Enforcement #Unfair #Deceptive #Section5 #COPPA #DarkPatterns #AlgorithmicDisgorgement