Senior Tories warn over Online Safety Bill

Senior Conservative politicians have urged the government to drop problematic aspects of its Online Safety Bill.

In a letter to Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries, former Brexit Minister Lord Frost, David Davis MP, Steve Baker MP, and Sir Graham Brady MP say the bill as drafted could be used to shut down free speech.

The legislation would hand the Government and tech companies unprecedented powers to designate "harmful" content including "legal but harmful" speech.

In their letter to Ms Dorries, seen by The Daily Telegraph, the senior Tory politicians warn that the "legal but harmful" limb of the legislation could lead to "political censorship".

The letter states that social media companies would suppress a wide range of content to meet the duty, and a future government could further widen the requirement to curb content it doesn't like.

“We are concerned about both the legal precedent set by the state targeting so-called 'legal but harmful' speech and the censorious impact this measure would have", the politicians say.

“We cannot support a two-tier system where the public may be prohibited from saying things online that are lawful to say offline.

“The censorious concept of putting restrictions on “legal but harmful” speech undermines our long tradition of promoting freedom of expression, and it is as unConservative as it is unBritish."

CARE shares the concerns of critics that the 'legal but harmful' measures in the bill could restrict democratic debate on a range of issues, and even affect the ability to share the Gospel.

However, we support other aspects of the Online Safety Bill which would punish platforms for allowing children to access pornography.

Our position on the legislation is explained in the Q&A article: Q&A on The Online Safety Bill | CARE