• Latest
  • Trending
UK Introduces Bill to Censor LEGAL Speech, Block Websites for Non-Compliance

UK Introduces Bill to Censor LEGAL Speech, Block Websites for Non-Compliance

05/13
Piers Morgan Confronts Israeli Ambassador on Child Casualties Amidst Gaza War

Piers Morgan Confronts Israeli Ambassador on Child Casualties Amidst Gaza War

05/29

Elon Musk Retreats from Political Spending Five Months After H1B Controversy

05/27
FAA’s Newark Decision Exposes Air Traffic Control Crisis and Mental Health Failures

FAA’s Newark Decision Exposes Air Traffic Control Crisis and Mental Health Failures

05/27
Ukraine’s Assassination Attempt on Putin Leads to Escalations in Conflict

Ukraine’s Assassination Attempt on Putin Leads to Escalations in Conflict

05/27
Edward Dowd Exposes Alarming COVID Vaccine Statistics on Excess Deaths and Disabilities

Edward Dowd Exposes Alarming COVID Vaccine Statistics on Excess Deaths and Disabilities

05/27
Biden Prostate Cancer

Joe Biden Prostate Cancer Diagnosis Shocks Nation

05/27

10 Moments Pope Francis FAILED Christians; Key Actions that Drew Backlash

05/27
McIver Assault on ICE Officers Sparks National Outrage

McIver Assault on ICE Officers Sparks National Outrage

05/20
PEW POLL: Majority of Americans Have Negative View On Israel; Republican Support Drops 10%

PEW POLL: Majority of Americans Have Negative View On Israel; Republican Support Drops 10%

04/16
Kristi Noem Enforces Real ID Tyranny, Travel Mandate; Tramples On American Liberty

Kristi Noem Enforces Real ID Tyranny, Travel Mandate; Tramples On American Liberty

04/16
Former Congressman Exposes 9/11 Cover-Up, Demands Trump Probe into Building 7 Collapse

Former Congressman Exposes 9/11 Cover-Up, Demands Trump Probe into Building 7 Collapse

04/16
VA Governor Youngkin Caught in Cover-Up Scandal With Sheriff Releasing Dangerous Criminal Aliens in Chesapeake

VA Governor Youngkin Caught in Cover-Up Scandal With Sheriff Releasing Dangerous Criminal Aliens in Chesapeake

04/09
Sunday, June 1, 2025
Subscribe
SUPPORT
National File
  • Home
  • Culture
    • Christianity
    • Video Games
    • Marxism
    • Snowflakes
    • Free Speech
  • News
    • Breaking News
    • International News
    • Fake News
    • Exclusive
  • Politics
    • Gun Rights
    • The Swamp
    • Deep State
    • Supreme Court
    • 2020
    • 2022
    • 2024
  • Big Tech
    • Technology
    • Alt-Tech
  • Sports
  • Education
  • Rona’
SUBSCRIBE
  • Home
  • Culture
    • Christianity
    • Video Games
    • Marxism
    • Snowflakes
    • Free Speech
  • News
    • Breaking News
    • International News
    • Fake News
    • Exclusive
  • Politics
    • Gun Rights
    • The Swamp
    • Deep State
    • Supreme Court
    • 2020
    • 2022
    • 2024
  • Big Tech
    • Technology
    • Alt-Tech
  • Sports
  • Education
  • Rona’
No Result
View All Result
National File
SUBSCRIBE
Home Free Speech

UK Introduces Bill to Censor LEGAL Speech, Block Websites for Non-Compliance

The bill has been described as "a frightening and historic attack" on free speech

by National File News
May 13, 2021
in Free Speech, International News, News
UK Introduces Bill to Censor LEGAL Speech, Block Websites for Non-Compliance

Last Updated on May 13, 2021

The UK government has introduced a draft “Online Safety Bill” which would force websites to clamp down on legal speech, and even block them if they don’t comply.

The Online Safety Bill, which was confirmed to be part of the UK government’s legislative agenda in this week’s Queen’s Speech, was released in draft form on Wednesday. Oliver Dowden, the Culture Secretary, said that the bill would “protect children on the internet, crack down on racist abuse on social media and through new measures to safeguard our liberties, create a truly democratic digital age.”

RelatedPosts

Piers Morgan Confronts Israeli Ambassador on Child Casualties Amidst Gaza War

Elon Musk Retreats from Political Spending Five Months After H1B Controversy

FAA’s Newark Decision Exposes Air Traffic Control Crisis and Mental Health Failures

While the words of government ministers claimed that the bill would protect free speech and liberties, while only ensuring a saver internet for all, free speech campaigners have raised alarm bells that this couldn’t be further from the case. The bill creates a “duty of care” on websites to ensure that explicitly legal speech which has an “adverse psychological impact” is clamped down upon. This means that if the bill is passed, not only would there be a greater standard of what speech is acceptable online and offline, but the government themselves would pass the buck to that decision down initially to the Big Tech companies.

The regulatory powers for the bill have been granted to Ofcom, the body that handles broadcast media and other communications in the UK. If a website is deemed by Ofcom to have not clamped down on legal speech, including “misinformation” as the bill requests, then they could be fined up to £18 million, or even have access blocked to them entirely.

The bill does add some protections for online speech, but only for “journalists.” The government has claimed that “citizen journalists” would also be given the same protections as big media outlets, but unlike for the media organisations, there is no language in the bill to determine who gets to be classified as a journalist or not. Regardless, the Free Speech Union said that this was merely creating a protected class under the law, and was completely unacceptable.

Agog to find out if I will qualify as a citizen journalist. Is a blog and an over-active Twitter account enough, I wonder?

— Graham Smith  (@Cyberleagle) May 12, 2021

Matthew Lesh of the Adam Smith Institute said that the bill was an “incoherent train wreck” that represents “a frightening and historic attack” on free speech. “The Bill needs a serious rethink,” Lesh added. “There needs to be a mandate on Ofcom that prevents the issuing of guidance that infringes on legal speech, open to arbitrary interpretation under the current proposals. There also needs to be a much greater focus on the perpetrators of unlawful behaviour.”

“The Online Safety Bill introduces state-backed censorship and monitoring on a scale never seen before in a liberal democracy,” said Mark Johnson, the Legal and Policy Officer at Big Brother Watch. “This Bill is disastrous for privacy rights and free expression online,” he added. “The Government is clamping down on vague categories of lawful speech. This could easily result in the silencing of marginalised voices and unpopular views. Parliament should remove lawful content from the scope of this Bill altogether and refocus on real policing rather than speech-policing.”

This legislation, which would force social media companies to censor *lawful* content, sets a terrible example to governments all over the world.

We are absolutely clear – provisions that restrict lawful speech should be removed entirely from the Bill.

— Big Brother Watch (@BigBrotherWatch) May 12, 2021

All websites around the world, no matter where they’re hosted, would be affected by the legislation if British citizens can access them. Andrew Torba, the CEO of pro-free speech platform Gab said that the bill would “destroy free speech online” in the UK, and that he would refuse to pay any fine that the British government would issue him.

“I’m not paying anything and they can’t make us,” Torba said. “If they block access to Gab so be it, that will be massive free press and we’ll teach millions of UK citizens how to use a VPN just like the dissidents in China do.”

Tags: Andrew TorbaCensorshipFree SpeechGabOnlineUK
National File News

National File News

Related Posts

Piers Morgan Confronts Israeli Ambassador on Child Casualties Amidst Gaza War
News

Piers Morgan Confronts Israeli Ambassador on Child Casualties Amidst Gaza War

May 29, 2025
News

Elon Musk Retreats from Political Spending Five Months After H1B Controversy

May 27, 2025
FAA’s Newark Decision Exposes Air Traffic Control Crisis and Mental Health Failures
News

FAA’s Newark Decision Exposes Air Traffic Control Crisis and Mental Health Failures

May 27, 2025
Load More
Next Post
GOHMERT: Biden Needs To Realize There Have Been Worse Things Than Unarmed Election Protesters ‘Coming Into a Building’

GOHMERT: Biden Needs To Realize There Have Been Worse Things Than Unarmed Election Protesters 'Coming Into a Building'

VIDEO: Fauci, FDA’s Peter Marks Admit 40-50% Of NIH and FDA Employees Are Refusing COVID Vaccine

VIDEO: Fauci, FDA's Peter Marks Admit 40-50% Of NIH and FDA Employees Are Refusing COVID Vaccine

Teacher Placed on Leave After Bullying Student for Not Wearing Mask During Lunch

Teacher Placed on Leave After Bullying Student for Not Wearing Mask During Lunch

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Breaking News

  • EXCLUSIVE: The Federal Government Is Tracking Unvaccinated People Who Go To The Doctor And To The Hospital Due to CDC-Designed Surveillance Program

    EXCLUSIVE: The Federal Government Is Tracking Unvaccinated People Who Go To The Doctor And To The Hospital Due to CDC-Designed Surveillance Program

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • FULL RELEASE: Ashley Biden Diary Reveals Child Sex Trauma, Drug Abuse, Resentment For Joe – Whistleblower

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • EXCLUSIVE SOURCE: Biden Daughter’s Diary Details ‘Not Appropriate’ Showers With Joe As Child

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • FBI Asks Judge to Delay Seth Rich Laptop Release for 66 Years

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • McCarthy Used FTX Cash to Defeat Conservatives in 2022

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

Recommended

Piers Morgan Confronts Israeli Ambassador on Child Casualties Amidst Gaza War

Elon Musk Retreats from Political Spending Five Months After H1B Controversy

FAA’s Newark Decision Exposes Air Traffic Control Crisis and Mental Health Failures

Ukraine’s Assassination Attempt on Putin Leads to Escalations in Conflict

Edward Dowd Exposes Alarming COVID Vaccine Statistics on Excess Deaths and Disabilities

Facebook Twitter Reddit Telegram RSS

Category

  • 2020
  • 2022
  • 2024
  • Abortion
  • Alt-Tech
  • Bannon
  • Big Pharma
  • Big Tech
  • BLM
  • Borders
  • Breaking News
  • Cancel Culture
  • cartoons
  • Censorship
  • China
  • Christianity
  • Civil Unrest
  • Climate Hysteria
  • commentary
  • Con Inc
  • Coronavirus
  • Corruption
  • Crime
  • Culture
  • Deep State
  • Dissident Right
  • Drugs
  • Economic War
  • Economy
  • Education
  • Election Integrity
  • Elections
  • Exclusive
  • Fact Check
  • Fake News
  • Fake News Media
  • Feminism
  • Free Speech
  • Germany
  • Gun Rights
  • Hate Hoax
  • Human Trafficking
  • Immigration
  • Impeachment
  • International News
  • Israel
  • January 6th
  • LGBTQ
  • Life
  • lifestyle
  • Mafia
  • Man-Made Disasters
  • Marxism
  • Medical
  • Movies
  • NarcoGovernments
  • National Security
  • Nationalism
  • Nationalism vs. Globalism
  • Natural Disasters
  • News
  • op-ed
  • Opinion
  • Opioid Crisis
  • Politics
  • Populism
  • Race
  • Radical Islam
  • Related Stories
  • Religion
  • Russia
  • Sex Crimes
  • Snowflakes
  • Soros
  • Sports
  • States
  • Supreme Court
  • Taiwan
  • Technology
  • Terrorism
  • The Church
  • The Hill
  • The Swamp
  • Trump
  • Ukraine
  • Unions
  • Video
  • Video Games
  • Violent Crime
  • Vote fraud
  • Voter Fraud
  • Voter Fraud Investigation
  • White House
  • Wholesome News
  • Zionism

Recent News

  • Piers Morgan Confronts Israeli Ambassador on Child Casualties Amidst Gaza War
  • Elon Musk Retreats from Political Spending Five Months After H1B Controversy
  • FAA’s Newark Decision Exposes Air Traffic Control Crisis and Mental Health Failures

© 2024 NationalFile.com National File, LLC. Privacy. Corrections. About Us. All Rights Reserved.
Have any questions or suggestions? If you are having difficulty unsubscribing from our mail subscription please send an email here info@nationalfile.com Want to advertise with us? Please email: info@nationalfile.com

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Politics
  • News
  • Culture
  • Coronavirus
  • Sports
  • 2020
  • Breaking News
  • Civil Unrest
  • International News
  • The Swamp
  • Big Tech
  • Deep State
  • Voter Fraud
  • Marxism
  • Free Speech
  • DONATE
  • SUBSCRIBE

© 2024 NationalFile.com National File, LLC. Privacy. Corrections. About Us. All Rights Reserved.
Have any questions or suggestions? If you are having difficulty unsubscribing from our mail subscription please send an email here info@nationalfile.com Want to advertise with us? Please email: info@nationalfile.com