March 18, 2022 | Online

UK introduces anti-porn bill

Britain's Boris Johnson and his Conservative government are once again targeting porn with a new "Digital Safety Bill."

Introduced into Parliament yesterday, it is being pushed as the answer to dealing with "harmful" content online.

The government says it "will protect children from harmful content such as pornography and limit people’s exposure to illegal content, while protecting freedom of speech.”

Under the plan, politicians will create a list of content it deems "legal but harmful," and force media companies to remove it. The main companies targeted will be those who allow users to post their own content, from social media giants like Twitter and Facebook, to Pornhub and Onlyfans.

“Internet users are one step closer to a safer online environment as the government’s new world-leading online safety laws are brought before parliament today,” claimed Conservative MP Nadine Dorries. “The Online Safety Bill marks a milestone in the fight for a new digital age which is safer for users and holds tech giants to account."

Failure to comply could see the leaders from these companies behind bars.

“Powers to imprison social media executives should be compared with Putin’s similar threats a matter of weeks ago,” ORG’s executive director, Jim Killock, said in a statement. “The fact that the bill keeps changing its content after four years of debate should tell everyone that it is a mess, and likely to be a bitter disappointment in practice.

"The bill still contains powers for ministers to decide what legal content platforms must try to remove. Parliamentary rubber stamps for ministerial say-so’s will still compromise the independence of the regulator. It would mean state-sanctioned censorship of legal content.”

Oddly, the government is planning an amendment to the bill that muddies the waters even more. A list of news organizations will be protected from having their content removed by social media companies without going through an appeal. The posts, even if they violate the Terms of Service of the platform, must remain up until the appeal is completed.

This means "news" sites like Fox could push health misinformation and it has to stay up while being reviewed by politicians.

Sounds like a total nightmare of a bill.