Labour: Delays to online safety laws allow Putin’s disinformation to go unchecked
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As the much-hyped, long-awaited, and much-delayed Online Safety
Bill is due to be published (today), Labour has called out the
government’s poor record on tackling online harms, which has
allowed the Russian regime’s disinformation to spread online in the
UK. In the almost four years since the bill was promised, the
Russian regime has exploited the wild west of the internet to
extensively to spread disinformation, in an attempt to destabilise
the West. Since...Request free
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As the much-hyped, long-awaited, and much-delayed Online Safety Bill is due to be published (today), Labour has called out the government’s poor record on tackling online harms, which has allowed the Russian regime’s disinformation to spread online in the UK. In the almost four years since the bill was promised, the Russian regime has exploited the wild west of the internet to extensively to spread disinformation, in an attempt to destabilise the West. Since Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, state-sponsored disinformation has run rife on social media, with false claims going viral, and Russian-linked accounts amplifying fake fact-check claims to debunk the situation on the ground. This comes after a co-ordinated campaign by Russian officials and others attempted to discredit the Sergei Skripal poisoning. Watching the success of the Russian regime’s disinformation campaigns, many other groups have learned and replicated their tactics. Since the start of the pandemic, Covid anti-vax conspiracy theories have undermined public health, and climate change deniers have leveraged algorithms to spread false claims about the nature of the crisis. Labour has rubbished claims by Ministers that the bill is “world-leading” by highlighting that seven countries have introduced online safety laws since the Conservatives first announced their intention to regulate online spaces in May 2018. In addition to disinformation from the Russian regime and others, the Party has also set out the cost of government delay which can be measured in:
The Online Safety Bill is a chance to ensure regulation of the internet is fit for the 21st century, but early drafts of the bill were overly complex and gave too much wiggle room to tech companies to continue to write their own rules. Labour has long called for the Bill to be introduced to tackle disinformation online, including anti-vax conspiracy theories. Labour’s Shadow Culture Secretary, Lucy Powell MP, said: “Delay to the Online Safety Bill has allowed the Russian regime’s disinformation to spread like wildfire online. Other groups have watched and learned their tactics, with Covid conspiracy theories undermining public health and climate deniers putting our future at risk. “The Government has promised to tighten the rules in the online world for almost four years. While we support the principles of the bill that is finally being published, delay up to this point has come with significant cost. “The big tech companies will not regulate themselves. The Government must ensure the bill can tackle disinformation online.” ENDS Notes to editors:
Source: NSPCC data
Source: https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/data
https://www.ft.com/content/41b33aa7-7a59-4b50-be47-9911adb34d3e
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