IEA Head of Public Policy, Matthew Lesh has appeared on GB News to discuss the threat still posed by the Online Safety Bill to freedom of expression and tech competition.

Matthew said:

“On the margins, I think the government have certainly improved the Bill,

“Where the government did make some positive changes, is they are no longer listing ‘legal but harmful’ categories of content that they expect major companies to deal with,”

But Matthew warned that the Bill still posed a threat to free expression and tech competition, he said:

“the government hasn’t dealt with a lot of issues with the bill: the issues about general monitoring of the internet (…), there’s other sections of the Bill that undermine encryption…

“this Bill is still extremely complex, extremely burdensome on companies – it’s going to end up being a boon for the biggest tech companies, because it’s going to provide bigger barriers to entry for smaller companies,”

You can see Matthew’s full appearance here (20:29).