The government has announced that the new Online Safety Bill has been put on hold until a new prime minister is in place in the autumn, a move that has won praise from free speech supporters.
‘Fall Into the Gutter’
Prof. Andrew Tettenborn, common-law and continental jurisdictions scholar and advisor to the Free Speech Union, told The Epoch Times by email that he suspected the Bill would be kicked down the road “with a hope it'll fall into the gutter and get forgotten.” The Free Speech Union (FSU) is an organisation that was set up by the British journalist Toby Young in 2020.Young told The Epoch Times by email that “it’s very good news. [The Bill] might not come back.”
A Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) spokesperson confirmed to The Epoch Times by email that “the Online Safety Bill will continue its journey through the House of Commons in the Autumn as a result of the parliamentary timetable.”
The Bill would force Google, Twitter, Meta (formerly Facebook), and others, to abide by a code of conduct, overseen by Ofcom, and remove “legal, but harmful” content.
“If I’m elected Prime Minister I will ensure the bill doesn’t overreach. We should not be legislating for hurt feelings,” added Badenoch.
Labour
Several Labour MPs voiced their opposition to the Conservative government putting their own Bill on hold, including Shadow Secretary of State for Digital Culture Media and Sport Lucy Powell.Tettenborn said that this “actually puts Labour on the spot.”
“If, like Lucy Powell, they want to criticise the move, they’re now forced to come out as the party devoted to online censorship,” he said.
In reaction, Chair of the City of London Corporation’s Police Authority Board, James Thomson, said: “This delay is a huge setback for victims and will lead to even more people being duped by online scammers. The Online Safety Bill is urgently needed to protect people from becoming victims of online fraud. It is vital that this Bill becomes law as quickly as possible to protect the public.”
The City Corporation’s Police Authority Board sets policing priorities for the City of London and ensures that the City of London Police runs an effective and efficient service by holding the Commissioner to account.
The bill is at the report stage, which is a chance for the whole House to discuss and amend it. It was expected to clear the Commons later in July before going to the House of Lords.
‘We‘re Grown-ups’
Writing in the Daily Sceptic, Toby Young, director-general of the Free Speech Union, said that “the news was so good I didn’t believe it at first, like being told you’ve just won the lottery.”“The sensible thing would be to pull it completely and start again with a more modest piece of legislation designed to protect children from accessing pornography and content encouraging them to self-harm, which was the original reason for the Bill. All the stuff designed to protect adults from ‘psychological harm’—we‘re grown-ups, after all, and capable of deciding for ourselves what content is likely to upset us, should be dropped entirely,” he added.
“I am not opposed to regulation, I do not for a second believe that the internet is a nice place to spend time and nor would I advocate that there shouldn’t be many more protections for children and those who are vulnerable online. We do need regulation to limit children’s exposure to illegal and inappropriate content but we need to do it in such a way that protects all of our rights,” she added.