Additions to online safety bill would also ban sites from discriminating against political viewpoints
Social networks will be banned from discriminating against particular political viewpoints and required to protect “democratically important” content, the UK government has announced, as its landmark online safety bill finally heads to parliament.
The additions to the bill, based on a white paper first drafted by Theresa May’s government in 2019, would make the UK one of the first nations in the west to require social networks to take active steps to moderate their impact on the democratic process. But there are fears that the requirement could lead to social networks refusing to take action against harmful content in case it is decreed to be democratically important.
