Explainer-in-brief: The tumultuous history of the online safety bill
The Online Safety Bill – drafted with the aim of making “Big Tech” accountable for the content published on their platforms – has been delayed in Parliament. It will be inherited by a new prime minister and culture secretary in the autumn.
The bill’s history traces back to David Cameron’s premiership, when the idea of checks and balances on potentially harmful content online was first introduced in the Internet safety green paper.
The scope of intervention was much reduced back then. It then spiralled, under May and then Johnson, into a huge bill that caused controversy within the most libertarian wings of the Conservative Party.
The bill – and what it means for online platforms and users – is not going away, though. Instead, it’s even playing a part in the leadership race. Penny Mordaunt has declared she’d back the bill, while Kemi Badenoch has supported its delay saying the bill is “in no fit state to become law”.