Attack on free speech and privacy

Bringing in mass censorship under guise of safety

- ARSENIO TOLEDO

THE House of Commons recently passed the Online Safety Bill, which represents the country’s latest and most damaging attack against online free speech and privacy.

The bill supposedly aims to keep websites and different types of internet-based platforms free of illegal and harmful material, while allegedly defending online freedom of expression at the same time. The bill’s provisions apply to search engines, internet services that host user-generated content like YouTube and social media platforms, online forums, certain kinds of online games, and sites that publish or display pornographic or otherwise adult content.

“Today, this government is taking an enormous step forward in our mission to make the UK the safest place in the world to be online,” claimed Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology Michelle Donelan who called the bill a ‘game-changing’ piece of legislation. Once the bill receives royal assent from King Charles III, it formally becomes law, and social media platforms will be expected to remove illegal content from the internet quickly or prevent it from appearing in the first place.