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Joined April 2008
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Photos and videos
Adam Smith Institute retweeted
"the evidence base just isn't there to support [social media] bans"
The UK government has announced plans to introduce a social media ban for under-16s by spring 2027.
Professor @Sander_vdLinden shares his reaction to today's news, and measures it against the evidence we already have about social media restrictions.
Learn more about his proposal for social media passports 👉 youtube.com/watch?v=Y4RUNJVF…
Professor Sander van der Linden is the Director of the Cambridge Social Decision-Making Laboratory and a Professorial Fellow of @ChurchillCol.
#SocialMediaBan #SocialMedia
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Today, we mark the 303rd birthday of Adam Smith. To keep his legacy alive, our co-founder has created a Graphic Novel edition of The Wealth of Nations, distilling his ideas into a 21st century format.
As our birthday present to him, you can order a physical copy online today!
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Link below: adamsmith.org/shop/p/adam-sm…
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Our Director of Public Affairs @maxwell_marlow was on GB News this morning discussing the Government’s under-16 social media ban announcement and, importantly, why it’s likely to fail.
Watch the entire segment below. 👇
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Adam Smith Institute retweeted
It was great to speak at the @cambridgeunion with @tomhfh and @jujulemons in defence of billionaires.
Never before have the left been so intransigent in their misunderstanding of commerce, economics, and property rights.
Photo by Nordin Ćatić
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'It is going to make it worse.'
Director of Public Affairs at the Adam Smith Institute Maxwell Marlow warns that Labour's new social media ban for under-16s could push children into 'corners of the dark web where no one can keep an eye on them'.
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Jun 15
Stamp duty is the worst tax on the books. Great to see shadow Chancellor @MelJStride citing ASI research on how abolishing it could unlock house building. 👇
Jun 12
This morning, I’m speaking at @PropertymarkUK setting out the @Conservatives case for abolishing Stamp Duty on homes.
Labour are failing our young people. We need to back aspiration and get Britain moving again.
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Adam Smith Institute retweeted
Jun 15
The difference is that here you’re not restricting drugs, you’re restricting the free and open flow of information and ideas
Jun 15
🚨 WATCH: Keir Starmer says under-16s in the UK may get around his social media ban
"But we don't say, 'oh look, a teenager managed to get a drink somehow' - let's not bother banning alcohol sales to children"
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Adam Smith Institute retweeted
Jun 15
Starmer thinking about giving up to 18 year olds a curfew to stop them scrolling on their phones.
He’s giving adults an 8:30pm bed time…
The only other place that times-out teenagers’ phones by government decree is the People’s Republic of China.
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Adam Smith Institute retweeted
If reports are correct, tomorrow we will see a short-sighted, illiberal, and potentially more harmful social media ban for under-16s.
As I said on @TimesRadio two weeks ago with @Jo_Coburn - politicians have no idea what they are doing, and neither do the lobby groups. 👇
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Jun 13
Our brilliant Research Associate James Hodgkinson joined TalkTV’s Evening Exchange yesterday, delivering a compelling rebuttal of both the triple lock and calls for compensation for WASPI women. 👇
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Jun 13
He has also written for The Critic this morning! ✍🏻
Jun 13
The next time a minister stands up to defend a multi-billion-pound vanity project that they say is “transformative”, perhaps the operative question is: “have you fixed the Wi-Fi yet?”
✍️ |🦊 |James Hodkinson
thecritic.co.uk/signal-failu…
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Jun 12
Jacob Rees-Mogg has always been a politician known for his style, but he looked especially fashionable participating in a @Bloomberg debate on Brexit this week.
Perhaps it was the sight of his ASI tie, which can be found below.👇
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Jun 12
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Adam Smith Institute retweeted
Jun 12
Zack Polanski was right that you can buy vegetables for less than 7p in this country, but wrong about what that says about our supermarkets.
The fact that produce is so cheap proves what Adam Smith observed: competition drives prices down, delivering value to consumers.
Jun 12
.@viggoterling went looking for the infamous 7p vegetable.
The closest thing he found was a loose carrot at Sainsbury's for 6p. Far from proving exploitation, the sixpenny carrot is evidence of something else entirely: brutal competition.
thecritic.co.uk/zack-polansk…
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Jun 11
This country has run a deficit every year since the triple-lock’s introduction.
Most now see how unaffordable our state pension has become, even @resfoundation .
Burnham should be focussing on proactive reforms, not retrospective budget-busting payouts.
Jun 11
Labour's magic money tree is back! Andy Burnham makes ÂŁ10BILLION pensions compensation vow to 'WASPI' women and hints at student loans relief trib.al/bHdUnI3
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Jun 11
Read more about the how fiscally untenable the state pension has become.👇
adamsmith.org/research/up-in…
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Adam Smith Institute retweeted
Jun 10
This feature already exists voluntarily on iOS. If parents want to enable it, they certainly can. The Government could even run an ad campaign.
But imposing these rules on adults will further destroy anonymity and result in British users losing services.
Jun 8
Our statement on the UK government’s demand that all content on all devices sold or used in the country be scanned, on the presumption of nudity, using a dystopian combination of age verification and content scanning. This proposal will not safeguard children. It endangers us all.
signal.org/blog/pdfs/2026-06…
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Jun 10
We agree — and raised the alarm about this when we suggested redrafting the then Online Safety Bill.👇
Jun 9
This is what the UK spyware proposal means.
There must be government spyware on every mobile device. It shall watch everything that happens, including always watching the screen, looking for things the government disapproves of.
When anything is flagged by the software as something the government doesn't like, the software must block it from being sent or displayed (in realtime).
The user of the device must not be able to shut this watching and blocking off. The only way to shut it off would be to ask the government or its proxies to do so for you, at their discretion.
Therefore the whole device must be locked down. Administrator rights and the decision of what software or operating system to run or not to run must be taken from the owner/user and handed to the government and its proxies.
Apple and Google are themselves working hard to lock down the devices they are involved in to shut out competition and establish a duopoly.
The UK government says it is "working closely" with Apple and Google and currently they synchronise and coordinate their communication on this subject.
The UK government is now proposing to mandate what would otherwise be illegal anti-competitive practices.
@GrapheneOS on the Apple and Google duopoly:
x.com/GrapheneOS/status/2053…
Statement from @signalapp
x.com/signalapp/status/20640…
@ReclaimTheNetHQ on the state spyware:
reclaimthenet.org/starmer-ca…
The government announcement:
gov.uk/government/news/new-p…
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