Hundreds of thousands of people are protesting the UK’s new online safety rules, with accusations of censorship being levelled at the government.
Five days since Ofcom’s new internet regulations began being enforced, nearly 400,000 people have signed a petition asking for them to be repealed.
In response to the petition, the government said it had “no plans to repeal the Online Safety Act”.
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Reform UK’s leader Nigel Farage likened the new rules to “state suppression of genuine free speech” and said his party would reverse the regulations.
In response, technology secretary Peter Kyle accused Mr Farage of being “on the side” of predators like Jimmy Savile, to which Mr Farage demanded an apology, calling Mr Kyle’s comments “absolutely disgusting”.
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Others, like adult content creators, have accused the government of censoring social media feeds.
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Adult content star Jak White told Sky News he believes the way the rules have been enforced amounts to “censorship [rather] than protecting children”.
“We create [non-explicit] content but the engagement has also dropped down on that, I guess, because of the keywords,” he said.
“Even emojis are pretty much getting filtered out because of the new Online [Safety] Act.”
“What it’s turned into now is pretty much censorship.”
These new rules are wide-reaching and as they were being implemented, Mr Kyle said they represented important progress.
“For the first time since the creation of the internet, parents and children will notice a difference in their online experience and that is something that we should celebrate,” he told Sky News last week.
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In the days since, there has not seemed to be much celebrating, but many campaigners argue that something had to be done.
A quarter of children’s suicides in the UK are linked to content they have seen online, according to one 2019 study that was published in medical journal Psychological Medicine.
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When Sky News spoke to teenagers at a Warrington youth club, they were clear that they wanted more protection.
Freya, 15, said she thought it was a “good idea” to have more restrictions because “there are some things that are so accessible on social media that really shouldn’t be easy to find”.
Robyn, 15, said she is often shown violent videos that she does not want to see.
“Getting restrictions on that would be way better because then it would be more, ‘Oh yeah, I did not see that, oh my day is way better’,” she said.
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In the days since the new rules came into place, there’s been a focus on the age verification systems now required for platforms hosting harmful content, but there are other changes too.
Social media companies have to alter their algorithms to make sure things like violence, suicide or self-harm material are not shown to young people, and children must be given more control over their accounts, including around blocking and reporting on social media.
But some people say these rules are being applied too broadly and mean that even adults are struggling to access legal content.
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“The problem is that good intentions don’t necessarily make good law,” said Matthew Feeney, advocacy manager at Big Brother Watch.
“I don’t doubt the intentions of those who are supporting this act.
“The fact is that it’s unclear that this will actually make children safer because they can just drive themselves to VPNs or to parts of the dark web to access this content anyway.
“In addition, adults are going to find themselves in a position of having to upload biometric data or identification in order to access completely legal speech.
“I think that’s a significant cost to incur in a liberal democracy.”
People do appear to be turning to VPNs to bypass the new rules.
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In the days after age verification came into force, VPNs made up five of the top 10 apps on Apple’s App Store and Google searches for the tool rocketed.
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In response to VPNs being used to bypass age verifications, a government spokesperson told Sky News: “Platforms have a clear responsibility to prevent children from bypassing safety protections.
“This includes blocking content that promotes VPNs or other workarounds specifically aimed at young users.
“Where platforms deliberately target UK children and promote VPN use, they could face enforcement action, including significant financial penalties.”
