UK Lawmakers Move To Squeeze Freedom Of Reach To Reduce Internet Trolling

In a bid to reduce to the barest minimum cyber bullying, The UK government has announced  more additions to its Online Safety Bill.

In its move to further regulate online content, the latest package being measures to protect web users from anonymous trolling.

Aside the aforementioned, the bill as a whole has more comprehensive aims, part of them including a sweeping content moderation regime not only targeted at explicitly illegal content but also ‘legal but harmful’ stuff,  with the focus of protecting children from a range of online harms, from cyberbullying and pro-suicide content to exposure to pornography.

Antagonists of the bill believe it will kill free speech, while isolating the UK with the creation of a splinternet Britain. They also argued this will pile up major legal risk and increase the cost of  performing digital business in the United Kingdom but that was not enough to deter the UK authorities from going ahead with its legislation.

Two parliamentary committees have in recent months being drafted to scrutinize the draft legislation, with one of them calling for a sharper focus on illegal content, with the other warning that the approach of the government to it is a risk to online expression, while it believes safety concerns are not addressed enough. The resolution of these committee’s may put ministers under pressure to make revisions to the bill, making it continuing to continue being a shape-shift.

The draft has other recent additions to the draft and they include requiring adult content websites to use age verification technologies, the massive expansion of the liability regime, together with a wider list of criminal content added to the face of the bill.

According to the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sports (DCMS), the latest changes will only apply to the biggest tech companies, with mean platforms required to give users the required tools that would limit how much (potentially) harmful but technically legal content they would be exposed to.

The European Court of Human Rights had in a recent ruling reaffirmed the importance of anonymity online as a vehicle for “the free flow of opinions, ideas and information”, with the court clearly demonstrating a view that anonymity is a key component of freedom of expression.

The implication of the ruling is that the UK lawmakers will need to tread carefully with the mandate of using legislation to transform the UK into ‘the safest place to go online’, to ensure that the protection of free speech will not be overall shredded.

Internet trolling with its adverse effect on user’s mental health is also not something to be overlooked as we promote free speech, as freedom of speech should not be tantamount to abuse or an avenue to hurt others. Internet trolling and really vile stuffs are mainly amplified on high-reach; mainstream, ad-funded platforms and the lawmakers may yet consider another method to stop online hate, which may be expressed through ‘data-driven’ content-ranking/surfacing algorithms.

The UK government method of tackling the menace of trolling is focused on compelling platforms to provide users with options to limit their own exposure, even with DCMS also recognizing the abusive role of algorithms in amplifying harmful content and it is hoped a compromise that ensures free speech and reduction in cyber bulling can be reached.