Online Safety Bill delayed yet again

Controversial bill was due a third reading in Commons next week but timeline is now unclear

The Online Safety Bill, The government's flagship legislation to make the internet safer for vulnerable users, has been delayed yet again.

First published in draft in May 2021, the bill was meant to be debated in the House of Commons in a third reading before going to the Lords in the summer. But that timetable was derailed due to turmoil in government, which culminated in the resignation of former PM Boris Johnson in September.

Johnson's successor, Liz Truss, said she wanted to "tweak" the bill because of its potential impact on free speech. Michelle Donelan, secretary of state for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) - who replaced the Bill's main promotor Nadine Dorries - said it would return early in November, after with some further amendments around the definition of "legal but harmful" material.

Now with Truss replaced by Rishi Sunak, the progress of the bill is once again uncertain, with that date withdrawn no clear date for when it will be debated in the Commons, PoliticsHome reports.

Shadow secretary of state for DCMS, Labour MP Lucy Powell, criticised the delay, saying it will result in more children being exposed to extreme and harmful material. "Every week that passes costs lives and takes a huge toll on those affected by abuse, trolling, scamming and algorithms encouraging self-harm and suicide."

She added: "It is disgraceful that one of the first acts of Rishi Sunak's government is to, yet again, pull the Online Safety Bill."

The bill many supporters, who want to see an end to the way big tech platforms can wash their hands of the content they serve. It requires mandatory age verification, fines for failing to take down harmful material, with senior executives of online platforms (even small ones) facing prison if they do not act on illegal content published on their sites.

See also: Age verification is coming

However, the bill has been widely criticised from many quarters because of its extremely broad scope (it has expanded over the years to cover all sorts of internet ills), vague definitions, the powers it gives to regulator Ofcom and the secretary of state for DCMS to define harmful content, the inclusion of restrictions on end-to-end encryption, its potential for increased online surveillance, and fears about censorship. Indeed, some lawyers have urged the government to start again from scratch.

"The Online Safety Bill is a mess and needs a total rewrite. As it stands, it offers the worst of both worlds," said digital rights lawyer Dr Susie Alegre.

"It not only threatens free speech, freedom of expression and privacy, but fails to do enough to tackle the real drivers of online harm, such as social media companies actively recommending posts about self-harm, which contributed to the tragic suicide of teenager Molly Russell."