Online Safety Bill: Frightening and historic attack on freedom of expression

In response to the Government’s publication of the Online Safety Bill, the Adam Smith Institute’s Head of Research Matthew Lesh said:

“The Online Safety Bill is an incoherent train wreck. The inclusion of ‘lawful but still harmful’ speech represents a frightening and historic attack on freedom of expression. The Government should not have the power to instruct private firms to remove legal speech in a free society.

“The scope of these proposals is practically limitless, encompassing everything from ‘trolling’ to ‘fraud’ and ‘misinformation’. It will threaten privacy by age-restricting the entire internet: requiring websites to gather drivers’ licenses and passports to ensure services are age-appropriate. The vagueness of the legislation means there will be nothing to stop Ofcom and a future government including any additional measures in future.

"The costs to businesses will be huge, with the Government's impact assessment indicating that the proposals will cost £2.1 billion, with an extraordinary £1.7 billion expected to be spent on content moderation. These costs will be crippling for start-ups and scale-ups, cementing the power of Big Tech.

“The bill needs a serious rethink. There needs to be a mandate on Ofcom that prevents the issuing of guidance that infringes on legal speech, open to arbitrary interpretation under the current proposals. There also needs to be a much greater focus on the perpetrators of unlawful behaviour. The proposals will not see a single extra penny dedicated to law enforcement or prosecuting serious online crimes.

For further comment or to arrange an interview, please contact Matt Kilcoyne via 07904099599 or email matt@adamsmith.org