Digital Freedom

Section 10 of the revised bill even authorizes jail time—up to two years—for anyone whose social media message could cause “psychological harm amounting to at least serious distress.” The message doesn’t even have to cause harm.

There’s also a separate crime of transmitting “false communications,” punishable by fines or up to 51 weeks of imprisonment. The problem here should be obvious: these are utterly subjective criteria. People disagree all the time about what constitutes a false statement.

The UK’s new proposed censors at OFCOM are making it clear they’ll never enforce against corporate media concerns; it’s only small media creators, activists, citizen journalists, and everyday users who will be subject to the extra scrutiny and accompanying punishments.

If it passes, the censorious, anti-encryption Online Safety Bill won’t just affect the UK—it will be a blueprint for repression around the world.