The Online Safety Act is already stifling free speech – The Spectator

Joey Barton, the footballer turned manager, may be a controversial figure, but is it really the business of the sports minister, Stuart Andrew, to threaten to silence him on Twitter and Facebook? Andrew this week described Bartons derisive remarks about female football commentators as dangerous comments that open the floodgates for abuse. He called upon Ofcom to take action under the new Online Safety Act.

The notion of free speech including the freedom to be offensive seems increasingly alien to ministerial minds. The Online Safety Act only came into law in October, and politicians already think its up to them to regulate who says what online.

For 300 years, newspapers vigorously fought off any attempt by the state to suppress freedom of expression. But the new media world of Silicon Valley has capitulated quite quickly. In an era when more people get their news from Twitter, Facebook or Instagram than from any newspaper, these companies exert huge power. The national conversation has shifted to online. It is edited and controlled by bots programmed in California by companies whose main concern is to make money from adverts. The old press barons took free speech seriously; Silicon Valley sees its power over content as a negotiating chip.

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The Online Safety Act is already stifling free speech - The Spectator