UK’s Online Safety Bill: Here’s how new internet safety laws aim to protect children, free speech – Times of India

The UK government has proposed some improvements in the Online Safety Bill with an aim to provide stronger protections for children, tougher measures to protect women and, at the same time, protect free speech online. The bill, which has been stuck in the UK Parliament for the last 18 months, is expected to get a green signal by mid-2023.
In simpler terms, the proposed changes will not force technology giants such as Google, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok to remove internet content that is harmful but legal. Instead, the new measures will “make social media platforms more transparent and accountable to their users.”
Why are improvements proposed?
The original bill gave regulators powers to sanction digital and social media companies. The move was a part of the government’s attempt to crack down on online racism, sexual abuse, bullying, and fraud among others.
The draft caused “significant concern amongst free speech groups and members of the public.” They argued that improvements in the bill were necessary to ensure that “legal free speech was not curtailed by creating a quasi-legal category of speech online.”
The UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has reportedly said that provisions for social media companies in the original bill could “over-criminalise” online content.

What are these improvements?
The UK government has proposed that any incentives for social media firms to over-remove people’s legal online content will be removed from the new draft. However, these firms will have “to protect children and remove content that is illegal or prohibited in their terms of service.” There will be no defined specific types of legal content that companies must address.
“This removes any influence future governments could have on what private companies do about legal speech on their sites, or any risk that companies are motivated to take down legitimate posts to avoid sanctions,” as per a statement.
How new changes will benefit users
The changes proposed by the government are said to provide users with a ‘triple shield’ of protection when online. Social media firms will be legally required to remove illegal content in breach of their own terms of service “and provide adults with greater choice over the content they see and engage with.”
The changes will also force technology firms to publish more information about the risks their platforms pose to children, essentially providing a course of action to parents to protect their kids.
Firms will also have to show how they enforce their user age limits to stop kids from seeing harmful content.