Make ‘significant adjustments’ to Online Safety Act, X urges govt
The Online Safety Act is putting free speech at risk and needs significant adjustments, Elon Musk’s social network X has warned.
New rules that came into force last week require platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and X – as well as sites hosting pornography – to bring in measures to prove that someone using them is over the age of 18.
The Online Safety Act requires sites to protect children and to remove illegal content, but critics have said that the rules have been implemented too broadly, resulting in the censorship of legal content.
X has warned the act’s laudable intentions were “at risk of being overshadowed by the breadth of its regulatory reach”.
It said: “When lawmakers approved these measures, they made a conscientious decision to increase censorship in the name of ‘online safety’.
“It is fair to ask if UK citizens were equally aware of the trade-off being made.”
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What are the new online rules?
X claims the timetable for platforms to meet mandatory measures had been unnecessarily tight – and despite complying, sites still faced threats of enforcement and fines, “encouraging over-censorship”.
“A balanced approach is the only way to protect individual liberties, encourage innovation and safeguard children. It’s safe to say that significant changes must take place to achieve these objectives in the UK,” it said.
A UK government spokesperson said it 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,” they added.
Users have complained about age checks that require personal data to be uploaded to access sites that show pornography, and 468,000 people have already signed a petition asking for the new law to be repealed.
In response to the petition, the government said it had “no plans” to reverse the Online Safety Act.
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Why do people want to repeal the Online Safety Act?
Reform UK’s leader Nigel Farage likened the new rules to “state suppression of genuine free speech” and said his party would ditch the regulations.
Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said on Tuesday that those who wanted to overturn the act were “on the side of predators” – to which Mr Farage demanded an apology, calling Mr Kyle’s comments “absolutely disgusting”.
Regulator Ofcom said on Thursday it had launched an investigation into how four companies – that collectively run 34 pornography sites – are complying with new age-check requirements.
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These companies – 8579 LLC, AVS Group Ltd, Kick Online Entertainment S.A. and Trendio Ltd – run dozens of sites, and collectively have more than nine million unique monthly UK visitors, the internet watchdog said.
The regulator said it prioritised the companies based on the risk of harm posed by the services they operated and their user numbers.
It adds to the 11 investigations already in progress into 4chan, as well as an unnamed online suicide forum, seven file-sharing services, and two adult websites.
Ofcom said it expects to make further enforcement announcements in the coming months.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has been urged to “reject the path of least resistance” and consider increasing taxes in the budget.
The Institute for Government (IfG), a leading think tank, said Labour’s “rash” and “unrealistic” approach to tax has left the chancellor reaching for “piecemeal changes”.
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The government has repeatedly said it will not increase VAT rates, income tax or national insurance at the budget in November.
But a report by the think tank calls on Ms Reeves to commit to serious tax reform, instead of reaching for an “eclectic grab bag of tax raisers”, which could further complicate the system.
It comes after the Resolution Foundation proposed a 2p cut in national insurance, matched by a 2p rise in income tax, to create a “level playing field” and protect workers’ pay.
Tory shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately said Ms Reeves was “preparing even more tax rises, set to hit families already struggling and choke off jobs at the very moment we need them most”.
She added: “Every Labour government ends the same way, with more people out of work, higher taxes and a bigger black hole in the public finances.”
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Ms Whately’s remarks came as the government announced a £25m funding boost for the expansion of youth hubs.
The Premier League has joined forces with Labour to support the expansion, with top football clubs signing up to help get more young people into work.
Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden will be speaking to Sky News Breakfast about the plans this morning.
Scrapping two-child benefit limit would reduce child poverty, report suggests
Meanwhile, a report has suggested scrapping the controversial two-child benefit limit would reduce child poverty, but not necessarily help with a youngster’s early development and their readiness for school.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) concluded the policy has “no statistically significant impact” on the proportion of children in England achieving what is known as a “good level of development” by age five.
The two-child limit, which was announced by the Conservatives in 2015 and came into effect in 2017, limits child tax credit and universal credit to the first two children in most households.
The government is expected to publish a strategy to tackle child poverty this autumn and has been under pressure to scrap the policy, which charities and organisations working in the sector estimate pulls more than 100 children a day into poverty.
Galaxy Digital’s Mike Novogratz says US crypto legislation will unleash new market participation, which could break the traditional four-year cycle.
US Commodity Futures Trading Commission acting chair Caroline Pham said her agency is looking to allow derivatives traders to post stablecoins and tokenized assets as collateral.
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