Is the Online Safety Bill Catastrophic For Free Speech?
https://www.bbc.comThe “Legal to Say. Legal to Type” campaign says if it becomes law, US tech firms would gain too much power.
The draft bill places new duties on social media firms to remove harmful or illegal content.
Published in May 2021 the Draft Online Safety Bill imposes a “duty of care” on social media companies, and some other platforms that allow users to share and post material, to remove “harmful content”.
This can include content that is legal but still judged to be harmful, such as abuse that doesn’t reach the threshold of criminality, and posts that encourage self-harm and misinformation.
Under the bill, Ofcom will be given the power to block access to sites and fine companies which do not protect users from harmful content up to £18m, or 10% of annual global turnover, whichever is the greater.
Campaigners claim this gives tech firms an incentive to “over-censor”, and “effectively outsources internet policing from the police, courts and Parliament to Silicon Valley”.
