Defend Democratic Expression
Channel: OpenRightsGroup
Date: 18/05/2023

https://action.openrightsgroup.org/stop-state-censorship-online-speech

The bloated Online Safety Bill contains so many risks to free speech – a government regulator shouldn’t control speech online or off.

A state speech regulator – appointed and directed by government – will create a sprawling bureaucracy of speech police. The Home Office and the DCMS will direct what speech must be removed, filtered and monitored.

The Bill’s provisions to block services which refuse to cooperate with the speech regulator’s orders could put household names like Wikipedia and Tumblr in the crosshairs.

Meanwhile, tech giants with the resources to surveil all user content would grow ever stronger.

We favour a rights-based approach to making the Internet safer. We’re part of a coalition of free expression organisations meeting with the Government to find a way to address online harms without sacrificing our digital rights.