With the Online Safety Bill, Britain is going from Nanny State to Granny State – CapX

It may have slipped your notice, but you don t have the right to free speech. British political commentators are regularly surprised to find out that under the 2003 Communications Act, being offensive is in fact an offence. If that doesn t get you, then there is always section 4a of the 1986 Public Order Act. You do have the right to be offensive while talking to another person in the privacy of your own home, so long as you aren t in Scotland, where the SNP have decided the government s right to monitor what you say extends to conversations held within your own living room.

Now the Government s draft Online Safety Bill threatens to curtail your freedom to think and speak as you wish even further. As a bonus, the same legislation could expose your messages to hackers, kill off British businesses, and appoint Silicon Valley firms as the de facto editors of British political speech.

There are so many problems with this bill that it is genuinely difficult to know where to begin. Perhaps the least understood but most harmful provisions relate to end-to-end encryption ; mechanisms which make sure that only the people sending and receiving data can read it. As you might be able to guess, these tools are pretty important from a safety standpoint. No-one not the Government, not the company, not any third party can read the messages sent unless they have the devices.

Think of it this way should I be able to read your messages with your wife? No? OK. Can I look at the photos she s sent you? Can I look at your camera roll? Also no? Interesting. If the idea of my having uninhibited access to your communications causes you some discomfort, you should be in favour of encryption.

The Online Safety Bill doesn t explicitly ban this technology. Instead, it attacks it indirectly: companies have an obligation to moderate illegal content. If that content is encrypted, then they can t moderate it. This means they either withdraw or weaken encryption, or they risk massive fines.

via capx.co

In a way it’s simple. Free speech went out of style as soon as we got the technology that enabled anyone to speak freely to a broad audience. We can’t have that, no sir-ee.