Is the Online Safety Bill safe?
“The bill is in no fit state to become law.”
Having completed the Committee Stage, and been debated in the House of Commons on 12 July 2022 as part of the Report stage, the Online Safety Bill was due to be the subject of further debate on 20 July.
While the scheduled sitting is currently still showing in the Parliamentary calendar, it has been reported by the BBC and others that due to “timetable pressures” the Bill will be put on hold, further debate will not take place on 20 July and the Bill will be revisited after the summer recess.
Of course, by that point we expect the Conservative Party to have appointed a new party leader, and consequently the Prime Minister, and in turn they could choose to appoint a new Secretary of State at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), who may well have different views on the overall approach and specific content of the legislation.
In response to the news last night, one of the Conservative Party candidates, Kemi Badenoch, who had served as Minister of State for Local Government, Faith and Communities and Minister of State for Equalities, and had reached the top 4 after the first ballot of Tory MPs, tweeted her thoughts, stating “The bill is in no fit state to become law. If I’m elected Prime Minister I will ensure the Bill does not overreach. We should not be legislating for hurt feelings”.
Only last week, the Online Safety regulator in waiting, Ofcom, was advising affected organisations to start preparing for regulation now.
The Online Safety Bill may get safer, but for whom? Watch this space…