Security News > 2021 > October > Online harms don’t need dangerous legislation, they need a spot of naval action

Online harms don’t need dangerous legislation, they need a spot of naval action
2021-10-25 09:29

Thus, the controversial Online Harms Bill will be rushed into law, quite possibly strengthened by new classes of offence and bans on anonymity.

The Online Harms Bill has been floating around in some form or another for ages, with its inherent contradictions of supporting free speech and technological innovations.

Misogyny, racism, homophobia and threats of violence against anyone online absolutely includes politicians: the ability to say that a politician is vile because their acts crush the lives of the powerless and desperate should never be silenced.

The Online Harms Bill hasn't got much to say about online advertising.

Instead of demanding complicated technical approaches to somehow automate the management and judging of human behaviour, imagine what would happen if an Online Harms Act said that it would be illegal to help run or fund any UK aspects of organisations found propagating harmful content? That UK servers and CDN nodes could not serve or deliver, and that if Sainsbury's advertising was found on a site causing harm, Sainsbury's would be liable?

You won't find the successful appliance of regulation to content mentioned in the debate, such as it is, on regulating online content for harm.


News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2021/10/25/online_harms_dont_need_dangerous/