POLITICO Pro Morning Tech UK: Ofcom’s 300 hires — What Welsh startups need — How UK tech policy is viewed abroad

POLITICO Pro Morning Tech UK: Ofcom’s 300 hires — What Welsh startups need — How UK tech policy is viewed abroad
Опубликовано: Friday, 03 March 2023 09:01

Presented by Google

By TOM BRISTOW

with MARK SCOTT and STUART LAU

PRESENTED BY

Google

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SNEAK PEEK

— Ofcom hires 300 new staff with 100 more to come as it prepares for the Online Safety Bill.


— Ever thought of moving to Wales? The country’s startup scene has a lot going for it, according to a report out today, but needs some help.


— How have the Brexit years affected the way U.K. tech is seen abroad? Mark Scott explains all.


Good morning and welcome back to Morning Tech U.K.


I’ve been running, cycling and training all over London to meet as many of you, dear readers, as I can, so this is being written in between long gulps of water and sprays of deodorant.


Get in touch with the team, Annabelle Dickson, Mark Scott and me on email. You can also follow us on Twitter @TomSBristow @NewsAnnabelle @markscott82.



DRIVING THE DAY

THE 300: Richard Wronka says he is one of the “lucky few” who has been following the Online Safety Bill since the beginning. The regulator’s director of online safety has been at Ofcom since 2012 and in the last two years has helped lead its hiring spree, recruiting 300 staff to get ready for enforcing the mammoth Online Safety Bill. There are another 100 hires to come, he tells us.


I am Ofcom: The most eye-catching of them has been Gill Whitehead who will lead Ofcom’s online safety group from April. There are three teams in that group — strategy & delivery (led by Mark Bunting), policy development (led by Jessica Zucker and John Higham) and supervision, which Wronka leads. “This is the business end of what we’ll be doing,” he said.


Competing with Big Tech: Ofcom has hired ex-police officers, counter-terrorism and child abuse experts from the National Crime Agency (NCA), as well as staff from other regulators like the Information Commissioner’s Office and Financial Conduct Authority. The regulator is also snapping up ex-Big Tech staffers to gain insight into how the firms it’ll be policing think. “It’s been a learning curve for us,” Wronka said. “We’ve hired some really great people. I think the mission and the excitement of what we do is a large part of that, as we can’t always compete on a salary basis with the private sector.”


But things have gotten easier: The job market has turned against Big Tech in the last year, which Wronka says has made recruiting less challenging. “Just in terms of the level of interest, I think our sense is that the tech sector downturn is actually helping us relative to where we were a year ago. And that’s important, because we’re still in growth mode,” he explained.


Collab: Asked what approach Ofcom will take to enforcing the OSB, Wronka told us: “There’s no kind of blueprint or template that we can just copy and paste.” He added: “Our job is more to provide clarity about what ‘good’ looks like and to work with them [tech companies] constructively to understand what approaches are effective. And that will sometimes be a more collaborative form of regulation than elsewhere.” Looking at you CMA.


Teeth: But, he adds, Ofcom will need to have teeth through the legislation. “We’re willing to show those teeth on occasion,” he said. He believes the financial penalties Ofcom can levy (10pc of global revenue or £18m) are “very significant” but they aren’t going to be measuring their success on that. “Part of our job as a regulator, and part of the expertise that we’ve built up over the last 20 years, is knowing when to pull that lever, and when there might be a different lever, which is more appropriate,” he said. Success, Wronka tells us, will be about how well tech companies comply with the rules rather than how many fines are levied.


The three Rs: For it to succeed on this untrodden ground Wronka says Ofcom is focusing on three Rs — recruitment, research and relationships. It has hired experts in the areas it is not used to regulating, like terrorism and child abuse. Alongside that it is busy publishing research papers in its new areas from romance fraud to online hate. And thirdly it is building new relationships with the third sector, like the NSPCC.


Delays: The bill’s timetable has constantly slipped and Ofcom’s most recent “roadmap to regulation” document, produced last year, expected the OSB to get Royal Assent at the start of this year. That is now looking more like early autumn, but Wronka said: “The concept of having to readjust our timetable has not come as a surprise. I would say the process that we set out in the roadmap document still largely holds.”


First steps: “The focus within that initial period is very much going to be on the legal harms section of the bill and the protection of children,” he said. Consultations will start two months after the bill passes. That would see Ofcom starting to fully implement its powers on illegal content around a year later, so 2024. The phase after that will be protection of children, followed by the third phase of user empowerment.


While you wait: In the meantime, he said, staff are busy preparing for the new regulatory regime and publishing research — around 100 research papers are being worked on, so plenty to read while you wait.





AGENDA

STARTUP WALES: Tech trade body Coadec is launching its first report into the state of the Welsh startup scene at 1.30 p.m. today at the Clubhouse, Cardiff Bay, alongside shadow DCMS minister Alex Davies-Jones. (More on this below).


HORIZONTAL IN BRUSSELS: The European Council’s Horizontal Working Party on Cyber starts at 9 a.m CET.


ONE FOR YOUR DIARIES: DSIT Secretary of State Michelle Donelan and ICO chief John Edwards will be the keynote speakers at the IAPP’s Data Protection Intensive conference on March 8 and 9. It comes as Donelan is expected to (re)unveil the Data Protection Bill next week, as we first reported on Tuesday. Joe Jones, director of research at the IAPP, formerly of DCMS and one of the Bill’s authors, said there would be several changes to it and they would be “deep diving” into the proposals at the IAPP event.


**A message from Google: “Olivia would like to download Toontastic 3D”. It’s not easy keeping up with kids and their devices. Google’s Family Link app sends a phone notification to let parents block or approve their child’s app downloads. So that’s one less thing to watch out for. Learn more.**



VIEW FROM ABROAD

WHAT TECH AND MARMITE HAVE IN COMMON: For outsiders, the U.K.’s approach to digital is a lot like the tangy yeast-based spread: you either love or you hate it. (FWIW, Morning Tech UK is not a fan of marmite.) For supporters of London’s strategy, the country’s ability to navigate the complexities of digital rule-making, while still keeping an eye on business needs is a major plus. For naysayers, the political chaos of the last six years, plus ongoing talk about cutting regulation, are red flags. Read more from Mark here.


In truth, the reality is somewhere in between. Does the U.K. sit at the top global policymaking table alongside the U.S., EU and China? No. But does it have the regulatory expertise, technical policymaking chops and international connections to make a difference? Absolutely. That’s a tough needle to thread, especially when ties to EU allies (on digital issues) are fractured and the U.S. doesn’t believe it’s that important to woo the U.K. (because it’s already seen to be in Washington’s camp.)


What’s interesting in the dynamic playing out is how the U.K.’s departure from the 27-country bloc altered the EU’s approach to digital policymaking — and how that will inherently have an impact on the wider world. Diplomats from Northern European countries (those more aligned to the U.K.’s view on regulation) bemoan that now London is no longer at the table, the power has shifted toward a more Franco-German approach to rulemaking. If the U.K. was still within the bloc, these officials argued, Europe’s landmark proposals may not have been so unwieldy.



AROUND THE WORLD

GOOGLE HIT: The EU’s antitrust sheriffs are preparing to hit Google with a fresh set of antitrust charges over advertising technology, my Brussels colleague Samuel Stolton reports.


WASHINGTON WATCH: The Biden administration will pursue a policy of more aggressive regulation to secure critical systems like banks, electric utilities and hospitals against cyberattacks.



WELSH STARTUPS

CROESO I GYMRU: Founders want to welcome more tech workers to Wales — but they face several challenges, according to Coadec’s first report into the state of the Welsh startup scene. Wales produces talent, but founders told the report’s authors that brain-drain to Liverpool, Birmingham and Bristol was a “serious issue.”


The challenge: The report says startups want access to a broader range of investment, along with more collaborative office space and improved broadband. The Welsh government also needs to provide a longer-term vision for tech, with one industry insider describing government support as “faddy.”


Now do this: The report concludes with eight recommendations for the Welsh government, including: launch a review into university spinouts, create more trade envoys for Welsh tech sectors, review how government funding can be leveraged for startups and invest in new co-working spaces to act as startup hubs.


Opening salvo: Dom Hallas, Coadec’s executive director, described the report as a “valuable opening salvo,” while Elis Thomas, Wales policy analyst at Coadec, said: “This is a snapshot of an ecosystem in flux: the founders I spoke to would all tell you that Wales is a fantastic place to start a tech company, but we have some catching up to do if we are to fulfil our true potential.”



XI’S RESHUFFLE

CHANGE IS IN BEIJING’S AIR: All eyes are on the annual plenary, the “Two Sessions,” which will begin in the Chinese capital on Saturday. Apart from the regular ritual of expecting the annual GDP target, this year is set to be a significant one for other reasons. President Xi Jinping’s new team will be announced, including the new vice president, premier and the four vice premiers. There are also increasing signs that Xi will use this occasion to consolidate his party/government reshuffle plan, which analysts say will see the Communist Party take greater control over hitherto governmental policy areas. The major overhaul of institutions is likely to impact national security and finance, as well as tech.


A tech headache: The front line of China’s geopolitical battle with the West lies in tech. Xi has called for more domestic research, but funding for basic research is nowhere near enough, while state funding has sometimes ended up being misused or “stolen,” according to Kendra Schaefer, Beijing-based partner at Trivium China. The reliance on Dutch technology for making semiconductors — as well as on Taiwan for the most advance chips — is one of the examples showing China’s exposure to external risks. Whatever the changes we’ll see after this weekend, China’s tech bureaucrats are calling this week for further developing 6G technology — if the past was any reference, it was China’s ability to outcompete the West on 5G that ushered its companies into pole position.



MOVERS AND SHAKERS

RESET: Luminate is looking for a policy lead for Reset to cover the U.K., Australia and Canada. The role is for maternity cover for Poppy Wood.


STAYING WITH POLICY: Tech research consultancy Careful Industries is hiring a policy researcher.



BEFORE YOU GO

LONDON BLOW: SoftBank had ruled out listing chipmaker Arm in London and will focus on a New York IPO instead. Bloomberg has the scoop.


WHAT’S UP MATT? Matt Hancock has accused journalist Isabel Oakeshott of a massive betrayal for leaking his WhatsApp messages.


MISINFO: DSIT junior minister Paul Scully has said that the government’s misinformation unit does not monitor individuals, after reports that it was err… monitoring individuals, Public Technology reports.


Morning Tech wouldn’t happen without editor Oscar Williams.


**A message from Google: Yoga. DJing. Engineering. Unicorns. When online family safety experts Internet Matters asked children about life online, three out of four kids said the internet was important for learning about things they don’t get taught in real life. But it’s not easy for us adults to know every app out there. To help, the Google Family Link app lets parents review, block, or approve every new download their kids request, and also see how long they spend with it. It includes parental controls for YouTube and the YouTube Kids app too, so parents know their kids are watching content that’s appropriate for their age, whether that’s cartoons or science experiments. Learn more about Google’s tools to help families be safer online here.**