In response to the news that the Government is introducing the Online Safety Bill in Parliament today, our Head of Research, Daniel Pryor, said:

"The Online Safety Bill was an illiberal, incoherent, anti-innovation mess when it was first introduced as a White Paper in 2019. After nearly 3 years of Parliamentary debate and scrutiny, it is still an illiberal, incoherent, anti-innovation mess.

Wrong-headed rules on "legal but harmful" speech, more regulatory burdens and the threat of enormous fines for tech executives will scare platforms into being more censorious, hurt competition and ruin the internet for millions of Brits. Politicians still don't understand what they're trying to regulate and without major change to this Bill, we will all suffer the consequences of their good intentions."

Notes to editors:

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The Adam Smith Institute is a free market, neoliberal think tank based in London. It advocates classically liberal public policies to create a richer, freer world.