Attention free speech activists! A new bill out of the United Kingdom would reportedly criminalize internet trolling that is deemed to cause “likely psychological harm.”
According to Reclaim The Net, the Online Safety Bill in Britain could penalize users of social media with up two years imprisonment. According to Reclaim The Net, the bill spells out penalties and leaves it unclear what content is considered criminal. Besides Social media posts determined only “likely” to cause “psychological harm,” “threatening communication,” even alleged threats not posted with the intent to carry out the threat, would reportedly be criminalized. Reclaim The Net wrote that “it would be enough to ‘prove’ that the recipient of such posts and messages ‘feared’ the threat was real.”
Spreading alleged false information determined to cause physical or emotional “harm” is also penalized by the bill, when “knowingly” done, Reclaim The Net wrote. Online “pile-ons,” or multiple trolling messages deemed harassing, would reportedly be criminalized too. Reclaim The Net cited another example of targeted content as being vaccine misinformation.
The U.K. government press release also specifically announced that the bill targeted “racist hate crimes.”
The U.K. government tried to frame the bill as “safeguarding freedom of expression” online. Legal and Policy Officer Mark Johnson of U.K. privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch, however, warned the bill could make “interference with free speech state-backed.”
Others agreed. Ex-Google lawyer and Fellow at The Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School Daphne Keller tweeted that the bill is “a pile of obligations tied to novel, undefined categories of permitted and prohibited expression. The crises of interpretation write themselves.” Keller later agreed with the assessment that the bill might create a “‘regulated oligopoly.’” The Committee to Protect Journalists pointed out “censorship concerns” with the bill, including the potential impact on journalism of regulating “digital speech.” Technology news site The Register tweeted an article with Members of Parliament (MPs) and activists warning that the proposed law would create an “‘algorithm-driven censorship’ future.”
Online Safety Bill already has raised eyebrows with its dramatic increase in censorship incentives to Big Tech companies as well as the great power it gives to Ofcom, communications regulator. Leftist activist turned Facebook “whistleblower” Frances HaugenAccording to reports, the U.K. bill was praised by a man who called for greater social media censorship. The U.K. government is known for targeting free speech in the past. For instance, in March, it touted an online “campaign to tackle [allegedly] false vaccine information shared amongst ethnic minority communities.” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) warned of similarly anti-free speech U.S. proposals that there is no “unbiased arbiter of truth.”
Conservatives are being attacked.Your representatives should be contacted to insist that Big Tech be held responsible for ensuring the First Amendment is mirrored and conservatives are treated equally. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s Use the contact formHelp us to hold Big Tech responsible.
