They scream about protecting the children, and hope you don't read the fine print. The Online Safety Act is an assault on freedom
So they want to protect the children from mean tweets.
Section 179 of the act makes it a criminal offence to say something false that causes “non-trivial psychological harm”. That’s not protecting kids from predators. That’s criminalising humour, satire, political dissent and angry tweets. Under this definition, a cutting meme, a sarcastic TikTok or a joke about a government minister could land you in court. This is not a safety law. It’s a censorship law.
Democracy? Consent of the governed? No, just bureaucracy.
Section 44 gives a single government minister the power to rewrite the censorship rules without Parliament. Let that sink in. A single person can direct Ofcom to impose new censorship obligations on the internet, and platforms will be legally forced to comply. No vote. No debate. Just diktat. This is the death knell of democracy.
And the Brits seem to be unable to do anything to stand in its way.
I'm going to miss civilization when it's gone. (Hat tip to Russell Brand, and his video This Is A lot Worse Than You Think.)
I included a link to Yahoo above, because mostly the Telegraph is behind a paywall, but I'm not sure that is the case here. In any event, here is the original link: The Online Safety Act is an assault on freedom
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