London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Monday, Aug 25, 2025

Online safety bill ‘a recipe for censorship’, say campaigners

Online safety bill ‘a recipe for censorship’, say campaigners

Proposals hand Ofcom the power to identify ‘lawful but harmful’ content and punish social networks that fail to remove it
Long-awaited proposals to regulate social media are a “recipe for censorship”, campaigners have said, and fly in the face of the government’s attempts to strengthen free speech elsewhere in Britain.

The online safety bill, introduced to parliament on Wednesday, hands Ofcom the power to punish social networks that fail to remove “lawful but harmful” content. The proposals were welcomed by children’s safety campaigns, but have come under fire from civil liberties organisations.

“Applying a health and safety approach to everybody’s online speech combined with the threat of massive fines against the platforms is a recipe for censorship and removal of legal content,” said Jim Killock, director of the Open Rights Group. “Facebook does not operate prisons and is not the police. Trying to make platforms do the job of law enforcement through technical means is a recipe for failure.”

The centre-right CPS thinktank was similarly critical. “It is for parliament to determine what is sufficiently harmful that it should not be allowed, not for Ofcom or individual platforms to guess,” it said.

“If something is legal to say, it should be legal to type,” CPS’s director, Robert Colvile, added.

In its update to the bill from the white paper first drafted by Theresa May’s government in 2019, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport added sections intended to prevent harm to free expression. Social networks will now need to perform and publish “assessments of their impact on freedom of expression”.

But the proposed legislation, published on the same day as a bill forcing universities in England to promote free speech, is largely concerned with pushing social networks to take down more content, not less.

One exception is another new section, which would make the UK one of the first nations in the west to require social networks to take active steps to moderate their impact on the democratic process. There are fears, however, that the requirement could lead them to refuse to take action against harmful content in case it was deemed democratically important.

Under the measures, “category 1” services – the largest and most popular social networks – will need to implement rules that protect “democratically important” content such as posts promoting or opposing government policy or a political party before a vote in parliament, an election or a referendum, or campaigning on a live political issue.

They will also be banned from discriminating against particular political viewpoints and will need to apply protection equally across political opinions.

As an example, the government said a company’s rules against content depicting graphic violence could include exceptions to allow campaign groups to raise awareness about the issue, “but it would need to be upfront about the policy and ensure it is applied consistently”.

Such a requirement has been regularly proposed in the US, where accusations of moderation bias against the Republican party have become more frequent than ever since Donald Trump was barred from most major social networks. If the online safety bill passes this year, the UK will be the first country to actively impose such a restriction on social networks.

The latest version of the bill also includes tighter protections for journalism. News websites were already explicitly exempt from much of the law’s remit, assuaging concerns that publications could be censored if they failed to adequately moderate the comments under their articles.

Now the draft bill includes additional protections for journalistic content posted to social networks, including from “citizen journalists”. Social networks will need to have “a fast-track appeals process” for journalists, and “will be held to account by Ofcom for the arbitrary removal of journalistic content”.

The bill also contains new requirements on platforms to act against online fraud, expanding the scope of the harms covered by the legislation. They will be required to take responsibility for scams perpetrated by their users, such as romance scams and fake investment opportunities.

Melanie Dawes, the chief executive of Ofcom, which will be in charge of enforcing the new regulations, welcomed the legislation.

“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,” she said. “We’ll support parliament’s scrutiny of the draft bill, and soon say more about how we think this new regime could work in practice – including the approach we’ll take to secure greater accountability from tech platforms.”
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Vietnam Evacuates Hundreds of Thousands as Typhoon Kajiki Strikes; China’s Sanya Shuts Down
UK Government Delays Decision on China’s Proposed London Embassy Amid Concerns Over Redacted Plans
A 150-Year Tradition to Be Abolished? Uproar Over the Popular Central Park Attraction
A new faith called Robotheism claims artificial intelligence isn’t just smart but actually God itself
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner Purchases Third Property Amid Housing Tax Reforms Debate
HSBC Switzerland Ends Relationships with Over 1,000 Clients from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Qatar, and Egypt
Sharia Law Made Legally Binding in Austria Despite Warnings Over 'Incompatible' Values
Italian Facebook Group Sharing Intimate Images Without Consent Shut Down Amid Police Investigation
Dutch Foreign Minister Resigns Amid Deadlock Over Israel Sanctions
Trump and Allies Send Messages of Support to Ukraine on Independence Day Amid Ongoing Conflict
China Reels as Telegram Chat Group Shares Hidden-Camera Footage of Women and Children
Sam Nicoresti becomes first transgender comedian to win Edinburgh Comedy Award
Builders uncover historic human remains in Lancashire house renovation
Australia Wants to Tax Your Empty Bedrooms
MotoGP Cameraman Narrowly Avoids Pedro Acosta Crash at Hungarian Grand Prix
FBI Investigates John Bolton Over Classified Documents in High-Profile Raids
Report reveals OpenAI pitched national ChatGPT Plus subscription to UK ministers
Labour set to freeze income tax thresholds in long-term 'stealth' tax raid
Coca‑Cola explores sale of Costa coffee chain
Trial hears dog walker was chased and fatally stabbed by trio
Restaurateur resigns from government hospitality council over tax criticism
Spanish City funfair shut after serious ride injury
Suspected arson at Ilford restaurant leaves three in critical condition
Tottenham beat Manchester City to go top of Premier League
Bank holiday heatwave to hit 30°C before remnants of Hurricane Erin arrive
UK to deploy immigration advisers to West Africa to block fake visas
Nurse who raped woman continued working for a year despite police alert
Drought forces closures of England’s canal routes, canceling boat holidays
Sweet tooth scents: food-inspired perfumes surge as weight-loss drugs suppress appetites
Experts warn Britain dangerously reliant on imported food
Family of Notting Hill Carnival murder victim call event unmanageable
Bunkers, Billions and Apocalypse: The Secret Compounds of Zuckerberg and the Tech Giants
Ukraine Declares De Facto War on Hungary and Slovakia with Terror Drone Strikes on Their Gas Lifeline
Animated K-pop Musical ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Becomes Netflix’s Most-Watched Original Animated Film
New York Appeals Court Voids Nearly $500 Million Civil Fraud Penalty Against Trump While Upholding Fraud Liability
Elon Musk tweeted, “Europe is dying”
Far-Right Activist Convicted of Incitement Changes Gender and Demands: "Send Me to a Women’s Prison" | The Storm in Germany
Hungary Criticizes Ukraine: "Violating Our Sovereignty"
Will this be the first country to return to negative interest rates?
Child-free hotels spark controversy
North Korea is where this 95-year-old wants to die. South Korea won’t let him go. Is this our ally or a human rights enemy?
Hong Kong Launches Regulatory Regime and Trials for HKD-Backed Stablecoins
China rehearses September 3 Victory Day parade as imagery points to ‘loyal wingman’ FH-97 family presence
Trump Called Viktor Orbán: "Why Are You Using the Veto"
Horror in the Skies: Plane Engine Exploded, Passengers Sent Farewell Messages
MSNBC Rebrands as MS NOW Amid Comcast’s Cable Spin-Off
AI in Policing: Draft One Helps Speed Up Reports but Raises Legal and Ethical Concerns
Shame in Norway: Crown Princess’s Son Accused of Four Rapes
Apple Begins Simultaneous iPhone 17 Production in India and China
A Robot to Give Birth: The Chinese Announcement That Shakes the World
×