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The Online Safety Bill - Will It Make a Difference?

  • Writer: Amer Loubani
    Amer Loubani
  • Jun 1, 2022
  • 3 min read

Following on from my post on Facebook and its lax online safety policy (take a read here: https://www.amerblogs.com/post/six-hours-downtime-was-the-second-worst-thing-to-happen-to-facebook-last-week), I thought I would share my thoughts on the "Online Safety Bill" that is currently passing through parliament. It may become law this year, but the Financial Times reports that the bill's effects may not come until at least 2024 (see sources below), given how much of the bill depends on follow up legislation and standards of conduct left to be determined in future. Let's take a look at whether this bill will actually make a difference, or is just a flagship legal venture to imply that the government is taking action.


The Online Safety Bill, in essence, aims to regulate social media platforms, search engines and other online offerings by introducing financial penalties if companies fail to comply. What "comply" actually means, though is not conclusively determined. It is no doubt helpful to legally levy the threat of fines reaching 10% of annual global turnover to get firms in line. However, if the terms are "preventing the spread of illegal content" and "thwarting online fraud" rather than measurable & quantifiable standards, then big companies will do what they do best and dodge responsibility.


There is also the argument that this bill gives the government - and specifically its Office of Communications OFCOM - free reign to clamp down on whoever it likes, using the vague punishment guidelines to do so. An Economist report also highlights how likely the bill is to contravene the European Convention on Human Rights (the UK is still signed up) and strangle free speech. The fact that this bill would give big tech licence to monitor secure messenger services for abusive content would undermine privacy and introduce state surveillance powers via the private sector. They could choose not to comply, therefore withdrawing their services from the UK and reduce freedoms in the country as well as market competition.


In terms of preventing the spread of content in line with the bill, big tech still has few tools to do so. 500 hours of YouTube content is uploaded every minute (The Economist), and the best algorithmic and AI approaches to rooting out unsuitable content fail to understand the context and target the right people. Humans cannot check every piece of content out there - and fear of economic reprisals may well push companies to be heavy-handed with content verification, targeting a big chunk of content that doesn't deserve removal. The government has tried to balance the act, by excluding journalistic and democratic material online from any regulations, but its impact on online opinion and debate remains to be seen.


The subsequent "codes of practice" that start to define the lines of suitable and unsuitable should take into account the challenges online content platforms currently face in regulating the space. Verifying identity could be a positive first step, but it must be balanced with state involvement so that identity data on millions of online users does not end up in the wrong hands. Technology can rise to the challenge - so if governments make it profitable to pursue new ways to regulate cyberspace it may indirectly achieve its goal. Rather than threaten fines and give companies the duty to avoid them, a collaborative effort is much more productive to define where the red lines are, and develop the tools to comply.


Accountability is no doubt important, and it is a positive first step to ensure big tech knows it is responsible for the content on their sites. The way to effectively regulate content online though must be dynamic, rather than just codified in statute, to address evolving challenges fairly and legally. Leveraging online privacy and freedom of speech to avoid instances of abuse and misinformation is a very unfair trade, and may well leave people with less online safety than they started with.


Author: My name is Amer, I'm a Computer Science with Business graduate currently working in tech consulting. My thoughts in this blog are based on my opinions regarding the regulation of the online world, and any info about the bill itself comes from sources listed below. Feel free to reach out to me via LinkedIn (on the about page) if you have any questions.


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