The authorities in the UK are “thinking of the children” – but really, of online censorship, say critics – and in doing so, thanks to Online Safety Act, are dipping their toes into the long since established in the US “revolving door” policy.
In the UK there is evidence of this flow going in one direction – from private Big Tech corporations to government jobs.
Reports say that in order to implement the controversial law that considerably restricts online speech, the regulator tasked with this, Ofcom, has employed as many as some 350 new staff – those from tech giants among them.
Former senior Microsoft, Google, and Meta employees are now working for Ofcom – and a further 100 jobs will be created in order to make sure the Online Safety Act is enforced.
Those who pushed its adoption for a long time and continue to justify it, as well as the new, ex Big Tech hires, like to frame and sell the legislation as necessary in order to protect children’s well-being online.
However, this is also the easiest way to protect themselves from criticism, as few people are willing to argue against a case positioned in this way.
However, many still have and do, and the gist of their opposition to the act and nebulous terms like “legal but harmful content” that must be suppressed is that one of the provisions – forcing messaging apps to scan user content (with child sexual abuse always first mentioned as a target – but not the only one) means a serious threat to encryption and therefore, online safety of everyone, including children.
But when big legacy media outlets are now reporting about the law, and the Ofcom hiring policy that has just come to light, they too like to focus on just the part of the Online Safety Act that its creators say is there for the sake of the children.
If they mention any “critics” – it’s to, bizarrely, like the FT has done, say that despite the move to bring in hundreds of new people, Ofcom will still be “stretched” – in, that is, its effort to control and censor at such a large scale.
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