The Online Safety Bill is an extreme danger to free speech

Who defines "offensive material" or "misinformation"?

The Government's ill thought out and ad hoc legislative agenda is chronically diverging from the values the Conservative Party asserts to espouse, the Online Safety Bill being the latest example.

For years the exemption from liability for tech companies has allowed online spaces to be largely free, where communities can gather to share ideas. Many inane and toxic behaviours exist online, but they are simply a by-product of allowing human beings to express what they think and feel.

I don't think many people have an issue with governments forcing tougher take-downs of genuinely harmful content like terrorism or abuse-related posts or images. However, very few expected Ministers to take the drastic step of removing liability exemptions altogether and especially under such vague terms as "harmful content"- which is broad wording that will be open to systematic abuse. This will make the UK a total outlier in international regulation, and make our internet space more like China’s, who have such large and sweeping government oversight.

Rather than risk a fine or other legal penalty from Ofcom, Facebook and Twitter will be all to happy to remove posts they disagree with. The political biases of the Big Tech monopolies is already a large issue, and this legislation will only make it worse. Who defines "offensive material" or "misinformation"?

One thing we can be sure of is platforms, big and small, will avoid controversial topics to avoid fines that could cripple them. From an economic perspective, this legislation will destroy any chance of the UK being a hub for new tech start ups (even though the Prime Minister has said this is an ambition for the UK's future).

Out of everything the Government has done so far, this is perhaps the most damaging in a social sense. For the one thing we have left in the face of a malicious and corrupt government lauding over us is the ability to speak out and oppose them. That ability could now die on the vine.

This disastrous legislation just goes to show that the Government faces both ways on every issue so-called Conservatives are meant to care about. They claim to be one thing, but are in fact the complete opposite. And the Left assert they are waging a culture war? Perhaps they are, but it appears the Conservatives are waging it from the wrong side.