{"id":42816,"date":"2021-09-13T09:15:13","date_gmt":"2021-09-13T09:15:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/you-can-go-your-own-way-over-gdpr-says-uks-new-information-commissioner\/"},"modified":"2021-09-13T09:15:13","modified_gmt":"2021-09-13T09:15:13","slug":"you-can-go-your-own-way-over-gdpr-says-uks-new-information-commissioner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/you-can-go-your-own-way-over-gdpr-says-uks-new-information-commissioner\/","title":{"rendered":"You can ‘go your own way’ over GDPR, says UK’s new Information Commissioner"},"content":{"rendered":"

The incoming head of the UK’s data watchdog has “gone on the record” to say he will be fair and impartial in his dealings with tech companies despite once describing Facebook as “morally bankrupt pathological liars.”<\/p>\n

John Edwards, who is currently New Zealand’s Privacy Commissioner, was responding to a now-deleted tweet he posted in the aftermath of the attack<\/a> at two mosques in Christchurch in 2019 which left 51 dead and dozens more injured.<\/p>\n

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The EU… has certain legal traditions which suggest that the GDPR approach best suits that legislative and regulatory environment<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The attack \u2013 which was livestreamed on Facebook and shared on social media<\/a> \u2013 was described at the time by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern as “one of New Zealand’s darkest days.”<\/p>\n

Speaking on Thursday at a hearing of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Committee via video link from New Zealand<\/a>, he was asked about his criticism of big tech companies.<\/p>\n

Asked by Damian Green MP whether he still felt that “tech giants are genuinely a threat to the wider democratic scrutiny and process,” he replied: “That tweet came from a very profound context of national shock and grief,” he told the committee, “[by] a very egregious terrorist act that was facilitated, amplified and propagated through that particular platform.”<\/p>\n