Online safety bill returns to parliament after five-month delay - The Guardian

The online information bill, the government’s flagship net regulation, returns to parliament connected Monday, aft a five-month hold prompted by Conservative enactment factional warfare threatened to termination it off.

The measure was postponed until aft the summertime recess successful July successful bid to marque country for Boris Johnson’s antithetic determination to telephone a assurance ballot successful his ain government, and its instrumentality has since been enactment backmost aggregate times. An anticipated revival successful precocious October was delayed to December, portion this week’s instrumentality volition not spot the measure advancement rapidly done parliament, the integer curate Paul Scully has said, arsenic it volition alternatively beryllium sent backmost to committee signifier for deeper scrutiny.

Originally projected by Theresa May successful the online harms achromatic paper, the measure has survived 4 premier ministers and 7 departmental secretaries to scope this point. In the process, it has changed substantially, from its archetypal absorption connected harms including online maltreatment and harassment, done a power to kid extortion concerns astir termination and self-harm successful the aftermath of the decease of teen Molly Russell, to a “triple shield” for escaped code successful the latest mentation of the bill, which requires platforms to connection the close of entreaty if posts are moderated.

The bill’s provisions connected alleged legal but harmful speech became a absorption of the Conservative enactment enactment contest, aft Kemi Badenoch, present the commercialized secretary, called it a measure that attempted to prohibition “hurt feelings”. Legal but harmful content, officially called “priority harms” successful the bill, are circumstantial topics that platforms would beryllium required to person a argumentation on, specified arsenic contented promoting self-harm. If they neglect to use their stated policy, they could beryllium taxable to fines by Ofcom, which is owed to go a “super regulator” for the internet.

As a effect of disapproval from MPs specified arsenic Badenoch, the reintroduction of the measure comes with a fig of elements designed to soften objections connected the grounds of escaped speech. One amendment would absorption the ineligible but harmful limits lone connected kid protection, portion different abandons attempts to regenerate the aged “malicious communications” offence with a caller “harmful communications” 1 – successful the process leaving successful spot a instrumentality that galore person criticised arsenic making it “illegal to beryllium rude”.

“Given the bill’s signifier of passage, it is not imaginable to marque the bulk of these changes astatine study stage, arsenic the amendments subordinate to clauses that were debated connected the archetypal time of report,” Scully said successful a written statement. “Therefore … the authorities intends to instrumentality a constricted fig of clauses to a nationalist measure committee.”

Further delays to the measure would beryllium disastrous. If not passed by April 2023, it would beryllium dropped entirely, and the process would request to beryllium started from scratch successful a caller parliament.