Joy Hyvarinen, head of advocacy at Index on Censorship, discusses the UK government’s online harms white paper with Vinous Ali, head of policy at Tech UK.
“The government is under public pressure to be seen to be doing something about this problem,” Hyvarinen said. “The implications for ordinary internet users have not been considered. If you introduce a duty of care, especially in combination with the risk of fines, it creates a very strong incentive for online platforms to remove and restrict content, and this is really going to impact on free speech rights and the right to information for millions of ordinary internet users in the UK, and it’s also going to set an example internationally.”
