UK Expands Online Safety Act To Enforce Preemptive Censorship For “Priority” Offenses
UK Expands Online Safety Act To Enforce Preemptive Censorship For “Priority” Offenses
Britain’s push for online “safety” drifts into a realm of digital pre-crime, where algorithms decide guilt before anything gets seen.
The UK government is preparing to expand the reach of its already controversial censorship law, the Online Safety Act (OSA) , with a new set of rules that push platforms toward preemptive censorship.
The changes would compel tech companies to block material before users can even see it, under the claim of stopping “cyberflashing” and content “encouraging or assisting serious self-harm.”
On October 21, the government laid before Parliament a Statutory Instrument titled The Online Safety Act 2023 (Priority Offences) (Amendment) Regulations 2025.
This legal mechanism, used to amend existing legislation without requiring a full new Act, adds two additional “priority offences” to Schedule 7 of the OSA:
– Encouraging or assisting serious self-harm, defined in Section 184 of the OSA
– Cyberflashing, derived from Sections 66A and 66B of the UK Sexual Offences Act 2003
By classifying these as “priority illegal content” under Section 59 of the OSA, the government triggers the law’s strictest obligations for online platforms.
Section 10 of the Act lays out the steps companies must take to remain compliant, steps that go far beyond traditional moderation.
Platforms will be required to employ preemptive censorship systems designed to “prevent individuals from encountering priority illegal content” and to “mitigate and manage the risk of the service being used for the commission or facilitation of a priority offence.”
In reality, this means social networks, forums, and messaging services will need to automatically block or filter posts that algorithms believe might fall under these categories before they are even visible to the public. This would require increased surveillance of people’s online communication.
They will also have to implement rapid takedown procedures for any content reported by users as potentially illegal.
🔗SOURCE ➡️ ReclaimTheNet
6/12 — Britain Launches Cross-Border Censorship Hunt Against 4chan
9/15/24 — Behind Closed Doors: The UK And US Plot Global Speech Crackdown
8/11/24 — Starmer’s Push To Police “Fake news” Sparks Major Censorship Concerns
8/4/24 — UK PM Keir Starmer Uses Riots To Call For Mass Surveillance and Social Media Censorship
Follow us on Minds / X / Substack
Boost This Channel
Follow ➡️ @PsyopDaily
