Owen Boswarva
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owenboswarva.bsky.social
Owen Boswarva
@owenboswarva.bsky.social
2.4K followers 2.1K following 2.7K posts
A mix of stuff: mainly #opendata, #dataprotection, #geospatial, #datapolicy, #ddj, #genAI, #govtech. Links and half-formed thoughts posted for my own amusement. Still on Twitter at @owenboswarva. Sites: www.owenboswarva.com and www.datadaptive.com. He/him.
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owenboswarva.bsky.social
⬆️ This is actually one of two address datasets I received today – I'll geocode and publish the other one over the weekend

#localgov #openaddresses #opendata
November 7, 2025 at 7:03 PM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
Lawyer Preston Byrne, who is acting pro bono for the suicide forum, has published correspondence from Ofcom prestonbyrne.com/2025/11/06/t... (scroll down)

Ofcom seems to allege that the provider is running mirrors that aren't geoblocking UK users.

#OnlineSafetyAct #censorship #openweb #techpolicy
Ofcom has become aware that the voluntary block in place on the above two websites restricting userswith UK IP addresses from accessing these domains is no longer effective to restrict UK users fromaccessing the service or its content. In particular, we note that content from the service remainsaccessible to users with UK IP addresses at another domain, namely https://dignifiedexit.com. A review of the site suggests that the content, functionality and design of the service on dignifiedexit.com appears identical to that on the two identified Sanctioned Suicide domains, including branding and layout. As such, we believe that this website forms part of the regulated user-to-user service 'Sanctioned Suicide'. Our technical investigations also suggest that the same underlying origin server is serving all domains (Sanctioned-suicide.net, Sanctionedsuicide.site and dignifiedexit.com), and this also suggests that all three domains are being controlled by the same service provider. In light of this development, we intend to continue with our investigation into the provider of SanctionedSuicide's compliance with the Act.
November 7, 2025 at 10:45 AM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
Mirror coverage, ventriloquising the Molly Rose Foundation www.mirror.co.uk/news/politic...

I can't bring myself to actually feel sorry for Ofcom, but I'm unclear on what action campaigners expect the regulator to take – given that the forum is US-based and is already blocking UK IP addresses.
In a letter to Ofcom's chief executive Melanie Dawes, which was sent on Tuesday, bereaved families hit out at Ofcom's lack of enforcement action against the forum. They said: "We have felt consistently let down by Ofcom's failure to grasp the evident urgency of protecting vulnerable children and adults from the horrors of this site and the appalling criminality that it promotes. "That Ofcom now continues to be unwilling or unable to grasp the severity and urgency of blocking this site and take steps to halt its operations is as bewildering as it is re-traumatising. "It breaks our hearts that other families are and will continue to experience the grief and despair that each of us has experienced while the regulator chooses to stand back in the face of inherently preventable harm."
November 6, 2025 at 8:10 PM
owenboswarva.bsky.social
Criminalise malicious AI deepfakes, says MP www.bbc.com/news/article...

Good: Norfolk Police has reportedly confirmed that a "deep fake" video of Tory MP George Freeman announcing his defection to Reform UK was not a crime

#OnlineSafetyAct #deepfakes #genAI #techpolicy
The force initially treated it as a potential false communications offence under the Online Safety Act 2023. But in a statement a spokesperson said it did not meet the legal test for a crime. The government is planning to bring forward its own legislation to tackle the issue of sexually explicit deepfake images. A spokeswoman for Norfolk Police said: "A crime was initially recorded in accordance with ethical crime recording standards. "These standards require that when a report is made to police, the alleged offence is recorded and subsequently investigated to determine whether the legal threshold for a crime has been met."
November 5, 2025 at 4:43 PM