Britain’s Online Safety Bill could change the face of the internet
Tech firms will be incentivised to censor their users en masse
Britain’s government likes to trumpet the benefits of free speech. Announcing a bill designed to prevent stroppy students “no-platforming” speakers at universities, Boris Johnson told his millions of Twitter followers last year: “Freedom of speech is at the very core of our democracy.” The Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill was included in the Queen’s Speech, which sets out the government’s legislative agenda, earlier this month.
Outside the lecture hall, though, Mr Johnson’s government is accused of censorship in its own right. Also in the Queen’s Speech was the Online Safety Bill (osb), a bumper piece of legislation that will impose sweeping new obligations on search engines, social-media sites, forums, video sites and the like. Ministers say it is “world-leading”. At 225 pages, with 194 separate clauses, and with up to 25,000 firms potentially affected, everyone agrees it is ambitious. The arguments are about its consequences.
This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline "Headline removed for your own safety"
Britain May 28th 2022
- Sue Gray produces a patchy account of the Downing Street parties
- Rishi Sunak unveils a new plan to ease Britain’s cost-of-living squeeze
- Britain’s Online Safety Bill could change the face of the internet
- Gene-edited food is coming to Britain
- What John Lewis’s turnaround says about the British high street
- A new history curriculum will not cool the culture wars
- Britain celebrates a jubilee, again
- How the Conservatives became an opposition in government
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