The list of amendments for the Online Safety Bill:
https://bills.parliament.uk/publications/50781/documents/3332
Highlights (or lowlights) include:
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A requirement for all Internet services to ban access and promotion to anything the Government deems to be "health misinformation". Labelled the "anti-vax" amendment. This will have a chilling effect on censoring scrutiny and criticism of pharmaceutical companies, of scientific papers that do not align with the Governments beliefs and the scientists themselves who are at odds with the Government line. Former Health Secretary Matt Hancock has been proudly gloating of this amendment today on Twitter.
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New definition of harms which will also include not just content but also contact, conduct and commercial harms.
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Protections for women and girls (but not men and boys) from harms. With the above, even unwanted communication (including sexual pictures and messages) and unrequited love on a dating site can be classed as "harms" under the coverage of this proposed law. Internet service providers are required to report any such behaviour to the Crown Prosecution Service.
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Requiring companies that operate online and available to UK citizens to implement the law into their terms of service. Including VPN's. Who will not be able to comply without destroying the whole point of their existence. Making their use pointless. Not a ban as threatened by Labour but effectively banned in all but name.
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Companies will be liable for anything published by anyone within their comment sections, forums, discussions or posts. Machine generated content will also be included.
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The pornography definition now expands to any website which allows user submitted adult content in any form to be uploaded and they must implement age verification on their site. All content must be R18 rated or lower or it gets classed as "prohibited material".
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The proposed punishment for a business and its directors is a fine of £18 million, 10% of their worldwide revenue, whichever is greater and/or up to 51 weeks in prison.
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Ofcom will be given powers to inform payment processors of breaches of the new law to have them stop processing payments. The amendment talks of adult content but could easily apply to everything covered in the proposed law.
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Online video games will come under the scope of this proposed law and will also carry age ratings.
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New technologies will automatically come under the scope of this proposed law.
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False communication (ie. lying, mis/disinformation or fake news) and threatening communication carries both a fine and a prison sentence.
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Internet service providers accessible in the UK must refer all cases of online racist abuse and harassment to the Crown Prosecution Service.
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App stores are now specifically mentioned in the proposed law.
There are also attempts to protect free speech and end-to-end encryption but they're likely to be defeated. One thing that might delight people on here is that the definition of risk to individuals will potentially also include loot boxes and pay-to-play content but also includes notifications by default, infinite scrolling, auto-playing videos, time-limited content and exchanging of virtual gifts. There is also likely to be consideration in the law for the amount of time someone spends online.
This is just my reading of the amendments, I don't pretend to be a law expert or fully accurate but what I can make out of what is being proposed is terrifying for freedom and liberty.
This is why Musk has been pushing Starlink and Free Speech. If countries do this, then Musk's Starlink becomes the only "free" internet service.
You have to remember that the law is designed in such a way that it applies to any Internet service accessible and operating in the UK. Musk is going to bend the knee to the UK authorities as he did with the EU. Musk is not going to be the white knight people think he will be on free speech.
Ultimately the only way to get speech into the UK going forward will be shortwave radio.
Is the battle even worth it at this point? The vast majority of people do in fact want their speech limited. I almost feel like becoming a manager for the elite is a better deal at this point than fighting a fight for people that don't even want you to fight for them.
The scary thing is that if you were to poll the average person whether they want freedom or safety, they will pick safety. Government takes advantage of this to sell authoritarianism and control as health and safety.
What is the government taking advantage of though? They're giving people what they want.
it also will become a single point of failure. a jucy target for all kinds of bad actors from moral busybodies to goverments and the ocasonal hackerman.