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Comment by Lio | Hacker News Reader

One of the most interesting things about this legislation is where it comes from.

Primarily it was drafted and lobbied for by William Perrin OBE and Prof Lorna Woods at Carnegie UK[1], billed as an “independent foundation”.

William Perrin is also the founder of Ofcom. So he’s been using the foundation’s money to lobby for the expansion of his unelected quango.

It has also been suggested that one of the largest beneficiaries of this law, an age verification company called Yoti, also has financial ties to Carnegie UK.

It’s difficult to verify that because Yoti is privately held and its backers are secret.

It’s not as if anyone was surprised that teenagers can get round age blocks in seconds so there’s something going on and it stinks.

1. https://carnegieuk.org/team/william-perrin-obe/

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Another source to back up the first claim https://carnegieuk.org/blog/online-safety-and-carnegie-uk/

I would like to see much more thorough journalism on the origin of these laws

> It’s difficult to verify that because Yoti is privately held and its backers are secret.

You can see some of these things on Companies House. This is Yoti Holding Ltd., but you'd have to look at its subsidiaries, too:

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/c...

(I'm not defending Yoti/similar, just mentioning in case you weren't aware of CH)

> It has also been suggested that one of the largest beneficiaries of this law, an age verification company called Yoti, also has financial ties to Carnegie UK.

Do you have any sources for this?

So you’re saying that someone who worked in government on online regulation has carried on that interest outside at a charitable foundation and has had some influence in drafting this legislation?

Not that surprising really is it? And all that is advertised on the individual’s bio online.

The only dubious thing you allude to are ‘financial ties’ to Yoti which are completely unsubstantiated. In fact I took the trouble of looking at the Carnegie Foundation’s accounts [1] and for the last two years at least they have had virtually no donor income at all so they are certainly not being funded by Yoti. Perhaps you would like to be more specific about these ties?

I don’t like this legislation much but creating a controversy when there isn’t one isn’t going to get it changed.

Edit: Just to add that the Carnegie Foundation seems to be about as independent and transparent as you can get which might be why it’s been influential. If you don’t think Google, Meta et all have all been lobbying furiously behind the scenes then I don’t know what to say.

Happy to take downvotes for calling out a fake conspiracy theory (‘there’s something going on’).

[1] https://carnegieuk.org/publication/annual-report-and-account...

Ludicrous to call William Perrin “the founder” of Ofcom or refer to it as “his” quango.

Passive voice, evidence free conspiracy nonsense that flatters HN biases? Updoots to the left!

> Ludicrous to call William Perrin “the founder” of Ofcom or refer to it as “his” quango

From his own Carnegie UK webpage linked above:

> William was instrumental in creating Ofcom, reforming the regulatory regimes of several sectors and kicking off the UK government’s interest in open data.

William was awarded an OBE for his highly influential work at Carnegie UK with Prof Lorna Woods that underpinned the UK government’s approach to regulating online services.

How is he not a founder of Ofcom?

That’s not a conspiracy theory, that’s just a verifiable statement of fact.

Or is it the use of the word founder you object to? If you prefer, “was instrumental in setting up and is closely related to the running of Ofcom”.

Both the use of “founder” and “the” are inaccurate and misleading (I notice you’ve switched to “a” without comment). He was a government adviser 20 years ago that was central to the work of creating Ofcom. How is he closely related to the running of Ofcom, today?

The conspiracy theory is your suggestion he is deriving some kind of financial benefit to Carnegie via Yoti - what is the basis for this? (I agree it would be a conflict of interest, though not hypocritical).

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