UK Online Safety Bill Threatens to Torch Platforms-including Wikipedia

[pellinore]

The UK’s proposed Online Safety Bill would require platforms to screen and monitor all activity and content when uploaded to predict whether it is illegal or harmful. Such a general monitoring obligation is prohibited in the European Union’s Digital Services Act.

Governments worldwide are drafting legislation and approving bills to address online safety challenges and hold technology platforms accountable for harmful content. This is good. But the UK is poised to play a leading role among Western democracies in imposing such broad monitoring that could chill free expression.     

Here’s how: the proposed UK law imposes new duties to “prevent” access to a wide variety of poorly defined content categories. For everyone under 18, a prohibition would be imposed on displaying content that the UK Parliament does not even view as illegal. Such blacklisting requires accurately predicting every reader’s location and age. Facing huge fines and “super-complaints” if they under-block, platforms will be forced to take a conservative approach – taking down legal material and excluding legitimate but hard-to-profile visitors.

UK Online Safety Bill Threatens to Torch Platforms - CEPA

Edited December 19, 2022 by pellinore