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Lexie Kirkconnell-Kawana

@lexiekk.bsky.social
173 followers 417 following 122 posts

At the helm in high seas @impressorg.bsky.social 🌐 bridging media, tech, law & public interest. 📍 current hyper fixation: soup, now we are in the 'ber' months Subscribe to my free newsletter: lexiekirkconnellkawana.substack.com

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Lexie Kirkconnell-Kawana @lexiekk.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
Highly recommend Lorna Woods excellent analysis of the legality of Groks "undressing" function and use www.onlinesafetyact.net/analysis/gro... Shows the limits of the law, particularly the regulators powers. Watch this space as governments the world over wrestle with abusive uses of AI tech.
onlinesafetyact.net
Grok: criminal offences, the civil law and the Online Safety Act
This analysis by Prof Lorna Woods OBE looks at the use of Grok, X’s AI tool, to create non-consensual, sexually explicit images of women and girls, the possible criminal offences that users might comm...
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Lexie Kirkconnell-Kawana @lexiekk.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
Online safety, digital surveillance and the last dying breaths of our right to privacy... This week in Common Ground I write about age assurance tech as a trogan horse for all our rights... bit.ly/3X7feX9
bit.ly
Child Safety Panic May Permanently Devour Our Privacy
Dramatic, tech-driven changes in the name of online safety may mortgage standards of privacy that we cannot build back.
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Lexie Kirkconnell-Kawana @lexiekk.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
Fantastic event on next Tuesday for those willing or able to travel to London Join writers, actors and campaigners to discuss the Hack, phone hacking, and what's next for press reform @hackedoff.bsky.social www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-hack-w...
eventbrite.co.uk
The Hack: What next?
Join TV personality Kerry Katona, writer Jack Thorne and star guests to discuss ITV drama The Hack - and must happen next.
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Lexie Kirkconnell-Kawana @lexiekk.bsky.social · 14/11/2025
We were waiting for this. AI developers got a nod from the UK courts on whether their AI models infringe copyrighted work. Recently, a judge threw out a passing off claim advanced by Getty Images against AI developer Stability. How do you feel about this? bit.ly/49pvBpn #AI #Copyright #AINews
bit.ly
Is AI Conquering Copyright? UK Court Throws Developers Fresh Bone
A new court ruling has altered how copyright holders can guard their work from AI learning. With regulatory frameworks still on blueprint, have AI developers evaded one of their early challengers?
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Lexie Kirkconnell-Kawana @lexiekk.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
We finally have the last edition of the Hack, out now! Thanks for those of you who've gone on the journey with our companion piece to ITV's the Hack. It's been a fun ride, and we know that a better media is possible @hackedoff.bsky.social @mediareformuk.bsky.social youtu.be/KnJNLrJC5Yc
youtu.be
After The Hack #7 | with Byline Times & Impress
YouTube video by Byline TV
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Lexie Kirkconnell-Kawana @lexiekk.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
What u find interesting about the Pete Hesgeth new pentagon access guidelines for journalists is the mislaid notion that people can contract our of their constitutional rights... www.google.com/amp/s/www.bb...
google.com
Redirect Notice
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Lexie Kirkconnell-Kawana @lexiekk.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
Divestment in quality media intentional or accidental? The stats support more effectiveness for brands and advertisers... So let's stop chasing eyeballs, clicks, impressions and build a digital economy that doesn't rely on exploitation. How about investing in ethical accountable media? #awc
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Lexie Kirkconnell-Kawana @lexiekk.bsky.social · 10/10/2025
The fight for trustworthy and accountable journalism found a new advocate in... the Pope? 😅 www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
theguardian.com
You won’t believe what degrading practice the pope just condemned
Communication must be freed from clickbait and misguided thinking, head of Catholic church tells journalists
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Lexie Kirkconnell-Kawana @lexiekk.bsky.social · 08/10/2025
Either, the Government will do nothing and the cycle of scandal and cosmetic reform will repeat. Press disinformation, intrusion and other abuses will go on, day to day, destroying peoples’ lives, distorting elections and misleading the public, but making little impact on the national policy agenda
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Lexie Kirkconnell-Kawana @lexiekk.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
How is phone hacking connected to one of the most notorious unsolved murders in Britain? Episode 2 of #afterthehack is out now. If you're watching the Hack on ITV 9pm, this is the best companion podcast for all the insights, hot takes and more. youtu.be/hN1NgxsJbxw
youtu.be
After The Hack #2 | with Byline Times & Impress
YouTube video by Byline TV
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Lexie Kirkconnell-Kawana @lexiekk.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
Really powerful words from Hugh Grant on the last 12 years of political failure, including the current Government, for victims of press abuse. If we want a better media we need this collusion to end.
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Lexie Kirkconnell-Kawana @lexiekk.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
At the Labour Party conference this week advocating for quick wins and ready made solutions for a better media with @hackedoff.bsky.social @mediareformuk.bsky.social and @pressjustice.bsky.social
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Lexie Kirkconnell-Kawana @lexiekk.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
Started watching #theHack on ITV and want more? 'After the Hack', our recap show with @bylinetimes.bsky.social is now out! Weekly episodes on the real politics and behind the scenes goss of the phone hacking scandal, plus what action you can take to build a better media youtu.be/VlCYtc_IGoU?...
youtu.be
After The Hack | Preview Show with Byline Times & Impress
YouTube video by Byline TV
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Lexie Kirkconnell-Kawana @lexiekk.bsky.social · 25/09/2025
It's lack of independence, discretion to interpret public interest and blended remit over content and market controls that allows US agencies like the Federal Communications Commission to become ideologically captured by Commissioners at the top #jimmykimmel
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nilay patel @reckless.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
Just to be blunt, if you want Wired and 404 and The Verge to employ reporters who understand the memes on bullet casings and can connect them to gaming culture while having the legal and support resources to deal with waves of harassment when we do it… you have to subscribe and pay for the work
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Lexie Kirkconnell-Kawana @lexiekk.bsky.social · 13/09/2025
Lucy Connolly and Graham Linehan are the latest high profile cases of speech being policed online. Posting hateful content and inciting violence against others without early intervention can fuel a pattern of behaviour which gives them the confidence to continue to post.
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Lexie Kirkconnell-Kawana @lexiekk.bsky.social · 13/09/2025
scarce and inconsistent policing of hateful and abusive content online has reduced that risk and emboldened people to push the boundaries further. Lack of enforcement online has created a culture of illegality.
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Lexie Kirkconnell-Kawana @lexiekk.bsky.social · 09/09/2025
Spoke too soon Nepal ban is lifted after tragedy during public protests www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Nepal protests: Social media ban lifted after 19 killed in protests
Thousands had taken to the streets demanding that the government lift the ban and tackle corruption.
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Lexie Kirkconnell-Kawana @lexiekk.bsky.social · 07/09/2025
In case you missed it Nepal just shut down access to 26 major platforms, including Meta and X for failing to meet new legal requirements. The age of platform sovereignty is ending. Global connectivity will be superseded by physical borders.
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Lexie Kirkconnell-Kawana @lexiekk.bsky.social · 21/08/2025
The House of Lords Communications Committee released a sobering report on #medialiteracy painting a picture of a nation in a literacy crisis. However the recommendations proposed are all over the place
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Sohan Dsouza @sohandsouza.info · 26/06/2025
🇬🇧🗞🔥🕵️ I wrote a guest post at @lexiekk.bsky.social's Common Ground newsletter, about six character profiles involved in misinformation and manipulation patterns surrounding the UK Southport-spinoff summer riots of 2024, and ideas for systemic-level mitigation measures. #platforms #OSINT #SOCMINT
lexiekirkconnellkawana.substack.com
How Platform Design Amplified Misinformation in the Southport Attack Aftermath
Sohan Dsouza, open-source intelligence (OSINT) investigator, takes over Common Ground to analyse six key actors who exploited social media to spread false claims that fueled anti-immigrant riots.
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Lexie Kirkconnell-Kawana @lexiekk.bsky.social · 20/06/2025
Last week I broke down how Big Tech spent 25 years dodging regulatory scrutiny with a simple playbook and turned a blind eye to illegal behaviour of its users online. This week's focus is the news publishers who became the catalyst for change. bit.ly/3G6Xztw
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Why Calls for Big Tech Regulation Feel New But Aren't: Part 2
News publishers now ‘fed up’ and concerned about digital market power on commerce and democracy, started regularly investigating tech company practises and raising awareness with the public.
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Lexie Kirkconnell-Kawana @lexiekk.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
💭 "Identifying who is causing harm is less difficult in our contemporary centralised internet where there are fewer upstream players and many have backdoor arrangements with law enforcement." bit.ly/3TiWHoy
bit.ly
Why Calls for Big Tech Regulation Feel New But Aren't
Tech giants built monopolies on a foundation of rule-dodging and regulatory capture while everyone bought into the myth that digital chaos was just the price of innovation.
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Lexie Kirkconnell-Kawana @lexiekk.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
🚨 The inconvenient truth about social media age bans 🚨 Everyone's rushing to "protect" children by banning them from social media. Australia, Texas, Florida—it feels obvious, right? But these bans might actually make the internet LESS safe for everyone. bit.ly/4kjpPYV
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Lexie Kirkconnell-Kawana @lexiekk.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
💡 If news publishers no longer see the value in being indexed and ranked in search results, is there a world in which they might voluntarily withdraw from search engines like Google entirely? bit.ly/3FdYEPY
bit.ly
All roads lead to Rome: closing the loop on news in Google search
If news publishers no longer see the value in being indexed and ranked in search results, is there a world in which they might voluntarily withdraw from search engines like Google entirely?
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Lexie Kirkconnell-Kawana @lexiekk.bsky.social · 15/05/2025
Great piece from @publicinterestnews.org.uk on Local Democracy Reporting Scheme and what #BBC could do to improve the scheme so it supports accountable independent local journalism www.publicinterestnews.org.uk/post/indie-n...
publicinterestnews.org.uk
Indie News Providers react to Local Democracy Reporting Service contracts announcement
In light of last week's announcement, Jonathan Heawood unpacks the reactions among indie news providers on the BBC's Local Democracy Reporting Service.Last Friday, the BBC Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) announced the awardees of new contracts to host Local Democracy Reporters (LDRs) for the next two-and-a-half years.  The LDRS is an initiative set up by the BBC in 2017. It pays for 165 journalism jobs to help report on local democracy issues across the UK, hosted by publishers followin
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Lexie Kirkconnell-Kawana @lexiekk.bsky.social · 15/05/2025
Things I like about the Davie speech: -recognition of the trust crisis, news alienation and audience decline -recognition of the existential threat disinfo poses www.theguardian.com/media/2025/m...
theguardian.com
BBC boss says disinformation ‘trust crisis’ putting social fabric of UK at risk
Tim Davie pitches BBC as unifying force as he announces plans to make more news content for YouTube and TikTok
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Lexie Kirkconnell-Kawana @lexiekk.bsky.social · 15/05/2025
💡 The subtle art of silencing doesn't need book burnings in the 21st century. It works through bureaucratic whispers, financial pressure, and systemic nudges. We need to move beyond defensive trench warfare to proactively reshape what free expression should mean. bit.ly/4deURhH
bit.ly
The Subtle Art of Silencing: A Starter Pack on Modern Censorship Techniques
The most insidious forms of censorship don't arrive with loud proclamations or dramatic book burnings. Instead, they creep in through bureaucratic whispers, financial pressures, and systemic nudges.
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Lexie Kirkconnell-Kawana @lexiekk.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
5 days out from the extended deadline for Tik Tok to divest it's US business. Trump has suggested he's willing to extend again, this is an example of the not so subtle ways the state acts on our right to freedom of expression indirectly. I'm writing more about this this week.
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Lexie Kirkconnell-Kawana @lexiekk.bsky.social · 08/05/2025
Fresh from the Cambridge Disinformation Summit 2025! 🧠 The big takeaway? Disinformation has evolved to unprecedented scale and sophistication. Current solutions mostly just monitor or expose—but we need to address the SOURCE. bit.ly/4k6DdPo
bit.ly
Everyone wants to fight disinformation as long as they get to define it
Most of our current fight against disinformation is focused on monitoring and exposing disinformation. This is not enough. Here's what I think we need to do to cut disinformation off at the source.
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Lexie Kirkconnell-Kawana @lexiekk.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
Had a lot of fun chatting to coop news about cooperative media and the changing face of our info ecosystem. Coops are a great way to think about post-state media and info delivery for democratic communities. Lots of great examples out there. www.thenews.coop/can-co-ops-p...
thenews.coop
Can co-ops protect press freedom in the age of AI?
As we enter uncharted waters when it comes to news information, we hear from the Independent Media Association and UK regulator Impress
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The Times and Sunday Times @thetimes.com · 06/05/2025
Google and Meta, the owner of Facebook, accounted for at least half of the £43bn spent on advertising in the UK last year, according to new research
thetimes.com
Half of UK advertising spend went to Google and Meta last year
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Thomson Foundation @thomsonfoundation.bsky.social · 01/05/2025
Disinformation has no single fix – agreed participants attending #ThomsonTalks during #CambridgeDisinformationSummit2025. The path forward lies in clearer communication, shared responsibility & cross-sector collaboration. www.youtube.com/watch?v=S57M... @jbs.cam.ac.uk
youtube.com
Insights from Thomson Talks @ Cambridge Disinformation Summit 2025
YouTube video by Thomson Foundation
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Lexie Kirkconnell-Kawana @lexiekk.bsky.social · 30/04/2025
OSA protections for publishers can't come soon enough! Platforms cannot shadow ban or remove accounts of regulated news publishers, and must expedite restoration of those accounts with clear and transparent processes
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Lexie Kirkconnell-Kawana @lexiekk.bsky.social · 29/04/2025
Matthew Eltringham, Senior Advisor, Editorial Policy "The BBC takes a principles based approach to using Ai in journalism... bar a few exemptions we wouldn't use Ai to create content... We use Ai assistedly rather than directly" #Aijounralism #Aiethics
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Lexie Kirkconnell-Kawana @lexiekk.bsky.social · 29/04/2025
Key takeaways from our AI in newsrooms best practice guidance, launching today *Always use human editorial oversight *NB Ai can generate inaccuracy *Avoid depicting real people or events *Be transparent with Ai use *Disclose how you use Ai *Avoid inputting confidential data #AIjournalism
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Lexie Kirkconnell-Kawana @lexiekk.bsky.social · 28/04/2025
The #Childrenscommissioner today calling for AI nudification to be strictly regulated because of growing prevalence of this tech harming children, the report suggests this tech isn't illegal, I don't think this is quite right... www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/resource/chi...
childrenscommissioner.gov.uk
“One day this could happen to me” - Children, nudification tools and sexually explicit deepfakes | Children's Commissioner for England
The growth of the online world is a technological revolution, the likes of which hasn’t been witnessed in centuries. The internet has enhanced our lives
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Lexie Kirkconnell-Kawana @lexiekk.bsky.social · 28/04/2025
This kind of soft political interference in editorial independence is not unique to the US, in the UK the SoS has similar powers to intervene in media mergers under the Enterprise Act 2002--this was most recently exercised during the sale of the Telegraph to Redbird IMI...
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Lexie Kirkconnell-Kawana @lexiekk.bsky.social · 24/04/2025
Ofcom has now laid Codes before Parliament for approval, platforms have till 24 July to conduct risk assessments as part of compliance, there are 40 new measures listed. This is going to keep policy and compliance busy for the next 13 weeks.
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Byline Times @bylinetimes.bsky.social · 24/04/2025
🔴‘Total Information Collapse’ and the Tribunal of Truth Peter Jukes, Co-Founder and Executive Editor of Byline Times, on the urgent need for media accuracy and why joining Impress, the independent press regulator, is the best way for us to uphold those values bylinetimes.com/2025/04/24/t...
bylinetimes.com
'Total Information Collapse' and the Tribunal of Truth
Peter Jukes, Co-Founder and Executive Editor of Byline Times, on the urgent need for media accuracy and why joining Impress, the independent press regulator, is the best way for us to uphold those val...
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Lexie Kirkconnell-Kawana @lexiekk.bsky.social · 24/04/2025
So #openai are launching an advisory committee full of human rights heavyweights to steer it back a rights orientation due to concerns re its commercial activity. Lots of criticism vis a vis window dressing in the context of harm about it's ownership and product. Here's what I find interesting...
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Lexie Kirkconnell-Kawana @lexiekk.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
As more journalists go freelance they lose the protections and resources offered by newsrooms (not least job insecurity); this creates ethical and liability dilemmas in news gathering and publication. pressgazette.co.uk/media-audien...
pressgazette.co.uk
UK journalists are getting older, more left-wing and increasingly work freelance
New survey reveals journalist salaries, age, gender and ethnicity make-up, answering question: "who are UK journalists in 2025?"
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Lexie Kirkconnell-Kawana @lexiekk.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
My key takeaway here is that people *want* human generated stories, even if they can't tell the difference when put to the test. This makes labelling content as AI generated even more important. Give people autonomy over their media choices! theconversation.com/people-say-t...
theconversation.com
People say they prefer stories written by humans over AI-generated works, yet new study suggests that’s not quite true
Participants in a study were willing to spend just as much time and money on an AI-generated story as one they were told was written by a human.
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Lexie Kirkconnell-Kawana @lexiekk.bsky.social · 22/04/2025
Tackling the climate crisis starts with us having a common understanding of the problem and the solutions; accountable news providers perform that sense making by acting in the public interest, getting their facts rights and choosing to be accountable to readers through independent oversight
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Lexie Kirkconnell-Kawana @lexiekk.bsky.social · 22/04/2025
On #earthday one of the things you can do to stop the spread of climate mis and disinformation is choose to use regulated news
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Lexie Kirkconnell-Kawana @lexiekk.bsky.social · 22/04/2025
Only 20% of the public are accessing regulated climate news--this means most people can't hold their news sources to account when they get the facts wrong or push irresponsible agendas
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Dominic Hinde @dominicmhinde.bsky.social · 22/04/2025
This report is just a first little step but glad to be one of the authors. Tldr we need to regulated climate disinformation the way we regulate other forms of media malpractice.
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Lexie Kirkconnell-Kawana @lexiekk.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
#UKSupremeCourt today rules that the legal definition of a woman is based on biological sex, and that sex as defined in the Equalities Act 2010 is binary (no word on intersex people); giving 'protection' to single sex spaces and right to exclude trans, non-binary and intersex people...
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Lexie Kirkconnell-Kawana @lexiekk.bsky.social · 15/04/2025
The #Hillsborough tragedy 36 years ago today was a devastating event that united a community and sparked a long and difficult pursuit of justice for the courageous individuals affected. Media bias and distortion of the truth impeded justice at the time (very much still relevant today)
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Lexie Kirkconnell-Kawana @lexiekk.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
Come along and bring those challenging questions and provocations to our panel of experts that will be exploring the ethics of using AI in newsrooms
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