Online Safety Bill: The New Age of UK Internet
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Since the tragic suicide of 14-year-old, Molly Russell, in 2017, there has been calls for new legislation to protect people online, especially children and the most vulnerable.
On 12 May, the Online Safety Bill was drafted, detailing many new laws created to ensure the internet becomes a safer, more secure place while also protecting freedom of expression and democratic debate.
The internet has changed the way we live and learn and has proved to be a massive asset for humanity, allowing us to become better educated and more connected. However, over the years fewer parents believe the benefits outweigh the risks of allowing their children to use the internet, dropping from 65 per cent in 2015 to 50 per cent in 2019.
The new bill sees that Ofcom will have the power to issue fines of £18m or 10 per cent of global revenue (whichever is higher) to any online platform if they fail to uphold to the new laws and regulations.
The bill covers a wide variety of online material and user behavior ranging from the most serious illegal matters such as; racial hate crimes, child predators, images of sexual assault, terrorism and fraud, to legal but harmful content such as images of self-harm or suicide, abuse, extreme violence and disinformation.
Social media sites, websites, apps and other services hosting user-generated content or allowing people to talk to others online must rapidly remove and limit the spread of such illegal and harmful content. The largest and most popular social media sites have been deemed Category 1 and must state explicitly in their terms and conditions how they will address these legal harms. It is Ofcom’s duty to hold them to account.
Dr Alex George, the UK government's Youth Mental Health Ambassador, said:
“This is a landmark moment here in the UK. The problem of online abuse has escalated into a real epidemic, which is affecting people physically as well as psychologically and it is time that something is done.”
The legislation contains provisions that require companies to report child sexual exploitation and abuse content that has been identified on their services, this will ensure law enforcements have access to the information required to safeguard victims and bring offenders to justice.
Through the bill, Ofcom has been granted reserved powers in order to take criminal action against the named senior managers of any company which fails to provide information or comply with new regulations, a review will take place at least two years after the new regulatory regime is fully operational.
Digital Secretary, Oliver Dowden, said:
“Today the UK shows global leadership with our groundbreaking laws to usher in a new age of accountability for tech and bring fairness and accountability to the online world.
“We will protect children on the internet, crack down on racist abuse on social media and through new measures safeguard our liberties, create a truly democratic digital age.”
All in-scope companies will need to incorporate safeguards for freedom of expression when fulfilling their new duties. Ofcom will set out safeguards in codes of practice. Most illegal and harmful content will be able to be identified and removed using AI systems however in complex cases there may be the need for human moderators.
Services must ensure there are effective routes of appeal for content removed without good reason and content must be reinstated if it has been proved to be removed unfairly.
Category 1 services will additionally need to conduct and publish up-to-date assessments of their impact on freedom of expression and demonstrate that they have taken any necessary steps to alleviate adverse effects.
Content defined as “democratically important” such as posts promoting or opposing government policy, or a particular political party has been protected under the bill and companies must ensure they are not discriminating against political viewpoints or opinions.
Companies will need to carefully moderate and consider the political context surrounding specific content and why it is being shared, for example there may be regulations prohibiting deadly violence, but a campaign group could release violent footage to raise awareness of certain issues. Given the democratic importance the company should chose to keep the content up, so long as it features forthcoming warnings.
Furthermore, journalistic content has been fully protected under the bill and is not in scope, for professional and citizen journalists.
All articles by news publishers shared on social media services will be exempt and category 1 companies now have a statutory duty to safeguard the UK users’ access to journalistic content. Companies must ensure they have a fast-track appeals process for any journalist who has had their content removed and will be held accountable by Ofcom for the removal of any journalist content, unless it has been proven to be misinformation.
Despite the provisions set in place to protect democratic content and freedom of expression there are some who have expressed concern of censorship.
Matthew Lesh, the Adam Smith Institute’s Head of Research, 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.”
Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group, warned the idea that speech is “inherently harmful” and needs to be moderated by private companies is “very dangerous.”
Ofcom will issue codes of practice outlining the systems and processes that companies need to adopt in order to be compliant, the codes of practice will ensure that important content, freedom of expression and online users are protected fairly.
Dame Melanie Dawes, Ofcom Chief Executive, said:
“Today’s Bill takes us a step closer to a world where the benefits of being online, for children and adults, are no longer undermined by harmful content.”
The draft bill will first be heavily examined by a joint committee of MPs before a final version is introduced to Parliament.