A threat to freedom of expression online

The Online Safety Act is a broad and complex law that puts many new duties on tech platforms, including the responsibilty of protecting children from ‘harmful’ content. Website and platform owners face fines or even prison if they fail to comply with the Act’s duties. Unsurprisingly, many platforms are being overly cautious and age gating or taking down more content than necessary to avoid penalities. As the Act starts to take effect, we are seeing online speech and content being restricted in many ways.

The Act favours Big Tech platforms who have the resources to deal with Ofcom’s demands. Small sites and forums are closing down because the duties are too much of a burden for people who run them, many of whom are volunteers. Some sites based outside the UK are geoblocking all UK users to avoid having to comply with the Act.

Age verification

UK internet users now have to verify their age to use a range of apps and websites. Age verification is not only being introduced for porn sites but also social media platforms, dating apps and even Spotify. We’re already seeing reports of content being age gated when it really shouldn’t be. These include sexual health and news subreddits but also features are being restricted such as the ability to send DMs on Bluesky.

You don’t get to choose the company that verifies your age when you try and access an age gated service. Companies don’t have to choose trusted or certified providers that meet specific privacy or security standards. So adults in the UK have the dilemma of handing over their data to an unregulated company or not being able to access content they want to see.

Censoring Palestine protest

The Online Safety Act combined with the UK’s vague definition of what constitutes supporting terrorism could lead to political speech being censored at scale in the UK. ORG is particularly concerned about the censoring of content relating to Palestine and protest following the proscription of the direct action group Palestine Action. This could lead to tech platforms removing content that is supportive of Palestine, content that questions or discusses the proscription of Palestine Action, and content that supports direct action in support of Palestine.

Content about Gaza is also being restricted by age verification. Reddit users in the UK have to verify their age, using the US age verification provider Persona, in order to access the Reddit sub r/israelexposed. There have also been reports that posts about Palestine on X have also been age gated.

Prior Restraint

Social media platforms will need to proactively remove content from their platforms, which will severely impact what we see and what we say online. 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.

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