UK’s ambitious plan to overhaul online safety laws delayed by government chaos

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

The UK government has been crafting legislation to regulate online spaces for a long time. There are provisions in the Online Safety Bill that include mandatory age-checks on porn sites. Boris Johnson's resignation as leader of the Conservative Party has caused these plans to be put on hold.

The online safety bill was due to be voted on by the House of Commons next week, but this vote has been delayed until after the summer recess, according to reports. If the next UK prime minister doesn't consider it a priority, or if the next culture minister doesn't agree with its scope, the bill will be doomed.

The legislation in no fit state to become law has already been criticized by one of the candidates in the race. If I become prime minister, I will make sure the Bill doesn't get too far. We shouldn't be legislating for hurts.

David Davis warned recently that the bill would hurt free speech in its attempts to rein in online harms. The bill could be the biggest accidental curtailment of free speech in modern history.

The online safety bill is supposed to make the UK the safest place in the world to go online. The bill puts more pressure on tech platforms to police their users and remove bad content. Content that is already illegal, like child sexual abuse material, as well as content deemed "legal but harmful", like hate speech, are included.

Critics of the bill are concerned that the government definition of legal but harmful is too broad. Tech platforms who don't remove or limit users' exposure to such content could face fines and jail time.

Cyber-flashing a criminal offense, forcing large platforms to give users a way to verify their ID, and pushing messaging apps to scans users' communications for CSAM are included in the bill.

The bill will remain at the report stage, meaning it is open to amendments. After the House of Commons votes on the bill next week, it will have to be approved by the House of Lords. The bill was expected to pass quickly despite being open to amendments. Its future is in doubt due to this delay.