UK’s Online Safety Bill Will Lead to Freedom of Speech Violations: Top Lawyer

A woman at her computer at the Games Academy of Falmouth University in Falmouth, Cornwall, England, on Jan. 29, 2022. (Hugh Hastings/Getty Images.)

Everyone who uses the Internet will be affected by the British government’s upcoming Online Safety Bill, which will significantly curtail freedom of expression in a way that has profound consequences, according to a leading media law expert.

In a legal opinion for the freedom of expression campaign group Index on Censorship, Gavin Millar QC heavily criticised the government’s upcoming legislation.

The upcoming bill on regulating online spaces, which would be the first major set of regulations for the Internet anywhere in the world, was introduced in Parliament on March 17. The bill is intended to “protect children from harmful content such as pornography and limit people’s exposure to illegal content, while protecting freedom of speech.”

Millar’s document is part of the “Legal to Say, Legal to Type” campaign, a coalition of civil society organisations and industry groups formed in response to the publication of the draft of the Online Safety Bill last year. Members include David Davis MP and Index on Censorship CEO Ruth Smeeth.

Restrictions on Internet Use

Millar said that the vague wording of the bill means that it is “anticipated it will touch on every single UK user of social media, search engines, and other platforms ‘within scope.’”

Under the bill, the biggest social media platforms must carry out risk assessments on the types of harms that could appear on their services and how they plan to address them, setting out how they will do this in their terms of service. Communications regulator Ofcom will have the power to fine companies failing to comply with the laws up to 10 percent of their annual global turnover.

In a 30-page document (pdf), Millar says the bill fails to recognise it could lead to Internet users’ freedom of expression being violated.

“If this legislative regime comes into force, there will be very many more restrictions on Internet use,” he wrote.

“The bill, which received a second reading in Parliament on April 19, does not comply with Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, and far from the claim of the culture secretary that the bill will protect free speech it actively undermines existing legal protections in an unprecedented manner,” he said.

He added that his report is not a comprehensive dissection of the “flaws” in the bill, which “are too vast to deal with succinctly.”

“The idea that speech can be lawfully moderated without properly adjudicating on an individual’s intention and the context of the speech is nonsensical—irrespective of whether your concern is terrorism, crime, or freedom of expression,” he said.

“A single misconstrued post or an overzealous algorithm could lead to severe consequences on how UK citizens communicate with friends and family and store precious memories,” added Miller.

‘Extremely Limited’ Protections

If material is deemed potentially illegal, he also said that social media companies could unilaterally delete illegal content, which could put victims of crime at risk if the job of law enforcement becomes harder. University students could find themselves unable to debate important topics online and comedians could even find their accounts potentially suspended over remarks that were intended to be humorous or satirical.

Millar said that protections for journalism will be “extremely limited” and that content from international publications could be censored arbitrarily and removed from social media platforms before appeals are lodged by publishers.

Furthermore, the bill would allow the scanning of private communications between journalists and sources, which would make “important everyday secure communication impossible.”

In a previous statement to The Epoch Times, a spokesperson for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport said, “Nothing in the bill will stop people accessing or posting legal content, and it will boost free speech online by putting legal duties on companies and Ofcom to protect people’s right to free expression, access to journalism, and content of democratic importance.”

Lily Zhou contributed to this report.