The UK Online Safety Bill: a pre-flight checklist
Since publication of the UK government’s long expected draft Online Safety Bill in May this year, discussion of the proposed new regulatory regime has intensified. 24,000 online businesses of all sizes, from large social media platforms to specialist discussion forums, as well as search engines, are estimated to be in scope. Ofcom will regulate this area and be given very significant enforcement powers including the ability to order fines of up to £18 million or 10% of annual global turnover, whichever is higher. The proposed Bill has broad territorial reach, not limited to online services established in the UK.
The pre-legislative scrutiny stage, conducted by a Joint Parliamentary Committee, was recently announced. Issues likely to be on the Committee’s radar include:
- whether the legislation should challenge anonymity online
- the role of age verification/assurance in protecting children online
- freedom of expression, including protection of “content of democratic importance” and “journalistic content”; and the exclusion from scope of “news publisher content”
- illegal versus lawful but harmful user content
- exclusion of business-to-business platforms from scope
- duties relating to prevention of fraud; and
- thresholds for the different categories of companies in scope.
Our panel discussion will cover these and other issues, look at where the government may end up in the most hotly debated areas, and analyse what an eventual Bill may mean for those in scope.