Nanny state conundrum: The Conservative Government and the Online Safety Bill

The covid-19 pandemic opened the floodgates for a host of interventionist policies across Government including in the telecoms, cyber and health sectors. A prime example is the Obesity Strategy which aims to help the British public make healthier choices to lose weight. This typically un-conservative policy has been referred to by many as an example of a “nanny state” whereby the Government becomes too involved in people’s lives and interfere with individual choice. Yet change is in the air. The recent “party- gate” scandal and shake up within Number 10 placed the Government in the vulnerable position of needing to win over the rebellious, Right-leaning faction of Conservative MPs. Chief of Staff Steve Barclay MP was quick to announce that the priority was now to “restore a smaller state – both financially and in taking a step back from people’s lives," an approach which can already be seen watering down obesity policies.?

However, one policy which pre-dates the pandemic and bucks the trend of the Conservatives’ preferred ‘small state’ philosophy is the Online Safety Bill. A product of their 2019 Manifesto, the Conservative Party pledged to legislate to make the UK the safest place in the world to be online. The Online Safety Bill, which was published in draft in 2021, was the product of this pledge.

The Draft Bill seeks to regulate the conduct of online platforms with more responsibility falling on the largest players within the sector. It makes for a complex balancing act of protecting freedom of expression and journalism while implementing a new duty of care for the likes of Facebook, Twitter and TikTok to protect their users from a vast list of illegal and harmful content. Safety duties for services likely to be accessed by children, requirements to address the risk of algorithms and duties for ISPs to block access to non-compliant services – the list goes on.

Far from being watered down, the Government are ramping up efforts to strengthen the Bill. In the past weeks DCMS have announced that eleven more offenses including revenge porn, fraud and people smuggling will be added to the face of Bill. Pornography sites will also be brought into scope as a regulated service which means that non-compliance could result in fines of up to 10% of the company’s annual worldwide turnover and their online content being blocked in the UK. Platforms will be required to allow users to block anonymous accounts and there have also been reports that DCMS and the Home Office are rallying support among senior Ministers to further increase requirements and liability on regulated services.

The Online Safety Bill is a far cry from the less intrusive, small state conservatism which was once championed by Boris Johnson and seems set to return. Though arguably there are a number of reasons why online safety policy is being strengthened, whilst so much else is being stripped back. One reason is that this Bill has been a long time coming- almost three years and four DCMS Secretaries of State to be exact. The Government are not only eager to reach Royal Assent, but they must also make sure that the Bill has been worth the wait.

Moreover, unlike other interventionist policies which many Conservative MPs despise for supposedly meddling in the private lives of Brits, the framing of the Bill as protecting online users by holding ‘big tech’ to account has gone down well with most Parliamentarians. Even though passionately small state, many Conservative MPs favour tighter regulation, partially because they are often at the receiving end of online threats but also because child safety is valued highly in Parliament.

Yet despite the broad support for the Online Safety Bill, the Government must strike a balance to keep its party and voters on side. To do this it will need to ring fence the likes of freedom of expression and freedom of the media (highly treasured by the Conservatives) from interventionist updates like those we have already witnessed. The Bill tries to protect these freedoms by regulating platforms rather than content and by providing explicit protections for journalistic content. Whether this will be enough remains to be seen but one thing is certain- a lot will hinge upon whether the Bill will be perceived as regulating tech companies or regulating what the people of this country can and can't do online.

The Online Safety Bill is expected to be published in March. Political Intelligence will closely monitor the Bill’s journey through Parliament. For more information on the Bill and online safety policy, please get in touch at [email protected].