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Keeping people – and children, in particular – safe online is, quite rightly, a significant concern. We know there is plenty of distressing and unlawful content out there being shared on platforms, including the mainstream ones. The Online Safety Bill is the UK government’s attempt at tackling this, but it is proving to be a contentious and hotly contested piece of legislation.
The government’s explainer document describes the bill as “a new set of laws to protect children and adults online”. It adds: “It will make social media companies more responsible for their users’ safety on their platforms.”
On the surface, this sounds very reasonable, even positive. Who wouldn’t want to protect children and adults online? However, there are huge concerns about the impact that the new rules, if introduced, will have on technology, particularly end-to-end encryption.
Essentially, the demand is that social networks and other
