\n<\/p>\n
Elon Musk\u2019s X platform has said the UK\u2019s Online Safety Act (OSA) is at risk of \u201cseriously infringing\u201d free speech as a row deepens over measures for protecting children from harmful content.<\/p>\n
The social media company said the act\u2019s \u201claudable\u201d intentions were being overshadowed by its aggressive implementation by the communications watchdog, Ofcom.<\/p>\n
In a statement posted on the platform, X said: \u201cMany are now concerned that a plan ostensibly intended to keep children safe is at risk of seriously infringing on the public\u2019s right to free expression.\u201d<\/p>\n
The UK government hit back, saying it was \u201cdemonstrably false\u201d to claim the act compromised free speech, and pointing to its provisions on protecting freedom of expression.<\/p>\n
X added in its statement that the freedom of speech risk would not be a surprise to the UK government because by passing the OSA, lawmakers had made a \u201cconscientious decision\u201d to increase censorship in the name of \u201conline safety\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is fair to ask if UK citizens were equally aware of the trade-off being made,\u201d said X.<\/p>\n
The act, a bugbear of the political right on both sides of the Atlantic, has come under renewed scrutiny after new restrictions on under-18s accessing pornography and viewing content harmful to children came into force on 25 July.<\/p>\n
Musk, X\u2019s owner, said days after the rules came into force that the act\u2019s purpose was \u201csuppression of the people\u201d. He also retweeted a petition calling for repeal of the act that has garnered more than 450,000 signatures.<\/p>\n
X has been forced to age-restrict some content as a consequence, with the Reform UK party adding to the furore by pledging to repeal the act. Reform\u2019s commitment prompted the UK technology secretary, Peter Kyle, to accuse Nigel Farage of siding with the paedophile Jimmy Savile, a comment Farage described as \u201cbelow the belt\u201d and deserving of an apology.<\/p>\n
Referring to Ofcom, X said regulators had taken a \u201cheavy-handed approach\u201d to enforcing the act by \u201crapidly increasing enforcement resources\u201d and \u201cadding layers of bureaucratic oversight\u201d.<\/p>\n
The statement said: \u201cThe act\u2019s laudable intentions are at risk of being overshadowed by the breadth of its regulatory reach. Without a more balanced, collaborative approach, free speech will suffer.\u201d<\/p>\n
X said it was compliant with the act but the threat of enforcement and fines \u2013 which in the case of social media platforms such as X could be as high as 10% of global turnover \u2013 could encourage censorship of legitimate content in order to avoid punishment.<\/p>\n
The statement also mentioned plans to create a national internet intelligence investigations team to monitor social media for signs of anti-migrant disorder. X said the proposal may be positioned as a safety measures but \u201cit clearly goes far beyond that intent\u201d.<\/p>\n
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Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n It said: \u201cThis move has set off alarm bells for free speech advocates who characterise it as excessive and potentially restrictive. A balanced approach is the only way to protect individual liberties, encourage innovation and safeguard children.\u201d<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Ofcom said the OSA contained clauses protecting freedom of speech.<\/p>\n They said: \u201cThe new rules require tech firms to tackle criminal content and prevent children from seeing defined types of material that\u2019s harmful to them. There is no requirement on them to restrict legal content for adult users.\u201d<\/p>\n A UK government spokespersonsaid companies faced fines under the act for failing to protect freedom of expression as well as for allowing children to view harmful content.<\/p>\n They said: \u201cIt is demonstrably false that the Online Safety Act compromises free speech. As well as legal duties to keep children safe, the very same law places clear and unequivocal duties on platforms to protect freedom of expression. Failure to meet either obligation can lead to severe penalties.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Elon Musk\u2019s X platform has said the UK\u2019s Online Safety Act (OSA) is at risk of \u201cseriously infringing\u201d free speech as a row deepens over measures for protecting children from harmful content. The social media company said the act\u2019s \u201claudable\u201d intentions were being overshadowed by its aggressive implementation by the communications watchdog, Ofcom. In a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13509,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[4308,533,7185,1145,1186,982,253,1053],"class_list":{"0":"post-13508","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-act","9":"tag-free","10":"tag-infringing","11":"tag-internet","12":"tag-online","13":"tag-risks","14":"tag-safety","15":"tag-speech"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}