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Defend uk Campaign backs Starmer for recognising substantial threat by Musk to national democracy and security
This pilot Independent Digital News page awaits appropriate news and comment pieces of national interest written or spotted by YOU & other individuals and organisations. It's in the spirit of the defend uk campaign, in defence of fairer free speech & democracy.
Please get in touch if you have news you'd like to have considered for posting here. Ideas and submissions can be sent via jason@jasontanner.uk or hello@defenduk.uk
A right of reply will become a key mantra of defend uk
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"nostr - controlled by users, not platforms"
What about alternatives to X and the other social media platforms? Thomas Forsyth , a leading Designer-Maker by trade turns citizen journalist to report on a new way of doing things, courtesy of NOSTR. Control goes back to the user. First published via Facebook on 20th June 2026
What about alternatives to X and the other social media platforms? Thomas Forsyth , a leading Designer-Maker by trade turns citizen journalist to report on a new way of doing things, courtesy of NOSTR. Control goes back to the user. First published via Facebook on 20th June 2026
3min read
in light of continued/recent UK nonsense… I’ll say it here: “Nostr”…
This is a gentle nudge to my creative, artist, designer, filmmaker, writer, musician and generally curious friends...
Over the past year I've been exploring something called Nostr. At first glance it looks like "another social network," which is exactly why most people immediately ignore it. I nearly did too.
What's interesting isn't the individual app(s). It's the idea behind it.
Imagine if you could take your social media profile, followers and content with you wherever you wanted. Imagine if changing apps didn't mean starting from scratch. Imagine if no billionaire, corporation or algorithm could suddenly decide what happened to your audience/reach/access.
That's essentially what Nostr is: an open social protocol that nobody owns. You have a private key to your data; you can take it wherever you want, whenever you want.
For creatives, that's potentially a big deal.
Your audience isn't trapped inside one platform. Your identity belongs to you. Different apps can compete to give you the best experience, while you keep your profile and connections.
There's also another fascinating piece: people can even directly support your work with tiny micro-payments. Not through ads, sponsors, subscriptions or complicated payment systems—just direct and immediate appreciation from one human being to another.
Think "buy me a coffee," but built into the network itself. You share your work/ideas; if someone values what you did (more than just a ‘like’); they can now send value (in the form of a “zap”), directly to you, immediately, in one click, with no intermediary. This was previously uneconomical/impossible on traditional payment rails.
You can then save this value, or redistribute it, or you can spend it in the real world (e.g. on a coffee), with an ever-increasing number of vendors that accept Lightning payments.
Fun fact: Square, the mainstream payment processing/point-of-sale company, has just/already enabled around 1 million vendors in the US to accept Lightning payments alongside regular card transactions. Interesting?
Nostr is still an early experiment, but whether you're a photographer, illustrator, musician, writer, maker, educator or simply someone who's tired of large platforms owning so much of our online lives, I think it's worth a look.
You don't have to abandon the platforms you're already using. But if you've ever wondered what social media might look like if users had more ownership and less dependence on giant corporations, Nostr is one of the most interesting experiments I've come across.
In my experience, it took a little while to initially ‘click’; Nostr protocol isn’t trying to hijack your dopamine response and steer your behaviour like regular social tech.
I now think Nostr is just more fun than other social media, even in this early-adoption phase.
I like the app Primal. There are other apps being built on the Nostr protocol too like: Damus, Fountain, Amethyt, Wisp.
As with everything online these days; just beware of scammers and bots.
Also worth noting: Nostr could really do with more diversity of content and creative flair right now… if you think this ‘Nostr thing’ sounds interesting; that could be you, making your mark and drawing a different/wider crowd to a worthy project…
“If you build it, they will come”…
If you’d like to find me on Nostr, here’s a link via Primal:
https://primal.net/.../nprofile1qqspkl7w9wx8qpmnlz06psl45...
Basically TLDR; I’d highly recommend learning about Nostr if you live in (or out of) the UK right now. It’s well worth exploring and having a play.
Big love,
Tx
Notes for Ediors:
Thomas Forsyth (Contemporary Designer): A UK-based creative consultant, maker, and 3D designer running a studio in London. His work covers CAD modeling, CNC prototyping, and physical fabrication for high-profile experiential installations.
IDN or Independent Digital News
operates as part of the defend uk campaign and exists in support of both professional and citizen journalism. It welcomes ideas for articles it could feature in support of free speech as well as new material written by both trained and citizen journalists.
Research by The Economist analysing several years' of posts appearing on Elon Musk's social media platform X, reveals a hefty bias that falsely portrays London as a cess pit of serious crime. The actual stats for homicide and stabbings point to a polar opposite truth being suffocated by this 'fog of fake news' being stirred in a cauldron of algorithmic spells, writes Jason Tanner from the volunteer led defend uk campaign for fairer free speech.
Research by The Economist analysing several years' of posts appearing on Elon Musk's social media platform X, reveals a hefty bias that falsely portrays London as a cess pit of serious crime. The actual stats for homicide and stabbings point to a polar opposite truth being suffocated by this 'fog of fake news' being stirred in a cauldron of algorithmic spells, writes Jason Tanner from the volunteer led defend uk campaign for fairer free speech.
defend maintains an open invitation to X and others to have a right of reply to articles that refer to them on this website
The facts of London's serious crime struggling to penetrate the news fog on X:
London has the lowest levels of the most serious crimes compared to its counterparts in the USA and Europe. This includes homicides and stabbings as illustrated in the above charts.
A short showreel hosted by Instagram neatly presents The Economist's key findings and can be accessed by clicking here or using the QR code.
The research mirrors the observations and research of the volunteer founder of the Defend UK Campaign for Fairer Free Speech who had himself spotted almost formulaic patterns of postings seemingly intending to stir tensions to a new level and destabilise elected democracies that not only included the UK but extended, to other countries he observed to include Australia, Ireland, Spain, Italy and other EU states.
defend's Jason Tanner observed for many countries the linking of highly emotive issues such as rape and child abuse with repeated and statistically inaccurate and often dehumanising and racist links to immigration and the Islamic faith.
Simple tracking reveals that Elon Musk allowed and supported many inflammatory posts on X. Fairly basic tracking also records what Tanner terms as 'mouthpiece' profiles repeatedly portraying X as the only real truth people need compared to the disparigingly termed legacy media facing suffocation by sweeping 'fake' claims that they all carried 'fake news' coupled with unfairly expensive lawsuit threats from the wealthy. This subdues presenting people with a wide range of information from different outlets. Attempts to destroy it clearly makes no sense for encouraging fairer free speech to flourish properly for the people it was intended for.
As with the Economist and others, Tanner also notes clear parallel messaging with Donald Trump, who Elon supported to election victory in 2024 .
Huff Post 19/02/2026 07:46am GMT
French President Emmanuel Macron has called out the free speech arguments touted by social media giants to justify controversial content on their sites in bruising remarks that put the European leader on a collision course with the Trump administration.
Speaking in New Delhi on Wednesday, Macron described the free speech defense as “pure bullshit” as he criticised digital companies for using algorithms as an excuse for publishing hate speech and misinformation.
Democracy under attack
Democracy under attack
Canary by Ed Sykes 30 January 2026
"...wealthy and powerful claimants have misused the British justice system and the costs associated with participating in pre-trial and court proceedings to stifle protected speech and public participation … democracy cannot be sustained without everyone being able to express themselves, challenge wrongdoing, or inform others."
They also insist that the right to free speech is critical for a functioning democracy.
President Donald Trump
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Elon Musk’s Intrusion into British Politics: A Threat to Democracy?
The dawn of 2025 brings with it an unsettling development: the increasingly prominent and concerning involvement of Elon Musk in British politics. Once lauded as a visionary entrepreneur, Musk’s recent actions, including accusations against British MPs and support for far-right figures like Tommy Robinson, paint a disturbing picture of a powerful individual wielding his influence to sow discord and undermine democratic principles. His foray into the UK’s political landscape has sparked alarm, raising critical questions about the role of private wealth in shaping public discourse and the potential consequences of unchecked online platforms.
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