The Internet Regulation: analysis the draft of Online Safety Bill

Abstract

The Draft of Online Safety bill is a new reform in the UK to make social media platforms a safe place. This project is a timely study that aims to analyse the draft Bill relating to the freedom of expression, based on a literature review on the right of free speech in cyberspace. One result indicates that the draft Bill needs to define the legal but harmful contents, as this ambiguous situation could lead to infringing Act 10 of Human Rights. Another result that supports this finding finds a positive correlation between over-regulation and violating the right of speech freedom. Interestingly, this correlation is related to the regulator -Ofcom- as they supervise the Digital Companies for their Duty of care. On this basis, it is recommended that more is needed to describe and consult on the regulatory regime before moving to legislation.