⚠️ TikTok Facing Scrutiny Over Moderation Cuts

TikTok has been asked to explain plans to reduce its UK Trust & Safety team, which monitors misinformation and harmful content. Committee chair Dame Chi Onwurah says the cuts raise “alarming questions” about user safety, but TikTok has yet to respond.

🤖 @ofcom.bsky.social Warns on GenAI “Answer Engines”

Ofcom’s new discussion paper says AI search tools like chatbots could reinforce user bias, reduce visibility for journalism and reshape how people access information.

www.ofcom.org.uk/internet-bas...

📈 X Algorithm Found to Boost Right-Wing Content

A @news.sky.com investigation using test accounts shows X’s algorithm amplifies right-wing content more than twice as often as left-wing material - raising concerns about algorithmic influence on UK political debate.

news.sky.com/story/how-sk...

📺 Following resignations over a misleadingly edited Trump speech by the #BBC, there's growing calls for systemic reform as we approach the Charter Review - with @mediareformuk.bsky.social and @psbfuture.bsky.social sharing their ideas 👉 britishbroadcastingchallenge.com?mc_cid=487de...

Read the full paper: demos.co.uk/research/ins...

This is a generation not defined by cynicism, but by curiosity, optimism and a desire for honesty and connection.

🧠 ‘Inside the Mind of a 16-year-old’ calls for more meaningful conversations with this sophisticated, smart, and generous generation, struggling to find their way in the world.

Yet despite frustrations, most remain proud of Britain, and believe they can build better lives than their parents.

🏫Schools are closing down space for debate and discussion.

This ‘cancel culture’ is fuelled by an outdated ‘boys are being corrupted by Andrew Tate’ narrative and lack of training on sensitive facilitation. Young people are forced to air their feelings in dangerous online echo chambers instead.

➡️ Andrew Tate’s influence is fading – young people’s media worlds are broader than headlines suggest
➡️ They don’t take TikTok at face value – most cross-check information elsewhere
➡️ Knife crime is a repeated concern
➡️ Politics feels distant – Farage is “admired not liked”, Starmer is “invisible”

75% of 16-18-year olds surveyed said these archetypes - co-created with young people - felt accurate, and that they offered a useful way to start real conversations with their generation, provided we remember they’re not fixed labels.

There is no Gen Z. The report challenges this lazy label and instead introduces five archetypes co-created with students themselves, which show just how diverse and nuanced this generation really is:

🪧 The Activist
💡 The Entrepreneur
🎮 The Critical Realist
👑 The Traditionalist
💬 The Connector

Report authors ran workshops with students across the country - from Sheffield to Sunderland, Manchester to Bristol - to hear directly about life online, politics, gender and their hopes for Britain’s future.

What they found might surprise you. 👇🧵

Authors consider the case for democratic repair: what practices generate legitimacy, help build democratic resilience and restore institutional trust.

Read the full paper here: demos.co.uk/research/ver...

When verification, deliberation and accountability are simulated, democracy itself becomes a performance.

The VDA framework - authors argue - must be embedded across the whole of society, inc. education, civic empowerment and investigative infrastructure.

The paper introduces the Arc of Democracy to visualise how systems move between functional and disordered states:

✅ Substantial - truth tested, voices heard, power constrained
⚙️ Performative - institutions go through the motions
⚠️ Disordered - democracy appears functional, but substance is inverted