Blog post: We should appreciate Twitter’s decision – and encourage others to follow

Twitter’s move to ban political ads comes as the UK enters a six-week general election campaign, one that will be more influenced by social media than ever before. For various reasons – including the British November and December weather -, online will form a key element for the general election campaigns. This is a trend we have seen in UK political campaigning over the past five years, now with almost half of campaign spending used online. Online campaigning has the benefit of targeted messaging, and Twitter’s decision will make this a little more difficult.

It is the right thing to do though: in a YouGov poll from earlier this year, 80% of people said they are in strong favour of regulating political ads on social media sites. Twitter follows ByteDance’s TikTok which announced a ban on all political advertising a few weeks ago – even if a large part of the platform’s audience is too young to vote.

Blog post: Tech policy and deals outside of Westminster

While Westminster once more turns to the government’s Brexit deal, there have been interesting deals and dealings in technology this past week. US private equity company Thoma Bravo acquired Oxfordshire-based cybersecurity firm Sophos for £3.1 billion. This acquisition can be interpreted as both and bad news for UK businesses. The ability to create a strong company so that it attracts international investment is a good sign of UK competitiveness. But then, a weak Sterling makes UK companies a cheap acquisition target, so there are also concerns. Further takeovers are likely to make the sell-out voices louder.

There was a more muted response when US investor KKR announced its intention to spend £500m on a majority stake in Hyperoptic, one of the altnets – telco providers with the financial resources and technical capabilities to build their own fibre infrastructure. With the government’s announcement to spend £5 billion on a nation-wide full-fibre broadband, KKR’s move makes sense. The political will to overhaul the UK’s connectivity has now also officially confirmed in the Queen’s Speech, and regardless of political developments, it seems likely that both incumbents as well as altnets will see financial gains. All they now need is that the actual laying of fibre cables will become easier.

Blog post: The commitment has been made – but we need more to add fibre to our diet

The Government is in determined election mode, only with no election to fight, for now. While the Prime Minister and his senior colleagues make their appearance at the nation’s hospitals, it is in areas like infrastructure and technology that are also receiving the attention of Ministers. The recent announcement that the Government is planning to support full-fibre rollout with £5 billion was met with what could at best be described as lukewarm applause.

Full-fibre – a fibre-optic cable running directly into a building, thus vastly increasing Internet access speeds – has been high on the political agenda in the UK for years. The country plays catch-up with other European countries, so the Government’s intent is to ensure that while the UK is doing that, no part of the UK falls behind. The financial support is therefore specifically aimed at the “hardest to reach 20% of the country”, meaning mainly regions in the North.

Blog post: Honestly, a vote for technology can be a vote for good

The Great Hack left me a little bruised. The Netflix documentary which explores Cambridge Analytica’s use of data in elections throws up a lot of questions. Was data misused and the public misled in the run up to the Brexit referendum? The fact that the answer is not a straight No should be enough reason for concern, and a clear call to action to look much more closely at our relationship with data and how this is being communicated to us. This warning was made long ago, when the scandal made headlines. It appears not much has happened since.

Data is the omnipresent and most powerful ingredient of our lives. It predicts the weather more accurately than ever before and drives cars. It provides insights into customer behaviour allowing retailers to tailor their offerings. It prevents fraud by looking at credit card spending patterns and identifying discrepancies.