ARTICLE 19, Big Brother Watch, Index on Censorship, and three other organisations have warned that the United Kingdom’s Online Safety Bill will fundamentally undermine the rights to freedom of expression, privacy and other human rights online.
Writing to Irene Khan, the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, the free expression and digital rights groups welcomed her comments to the UK Government about the Bill in March 2022, but noted that since that time, the legislation has not been improved to protect human rights. We urged the Special Rapporteur to provide recommendations, in particular concerning references to ‘legal and harmful’ content and the provisions that will make online platforms – not courts – responsible for enforcing UK law, among other concerns.