The online harms Bill could allow a future Labour government to clamp down on free speech, says Lord Frost and senior Tories.
The former Brexit minister is among nine senior Tories who are demanding Nadine Dorries ditch plans to regulate legal but harmful content online because of fears a future Labour government could use it to censor free speech.
The group which also includes former ministers David Davis and Steve Baker and Sir Graham Brady, the chair of the 1922 Committee, have written to the Culture Secretary warning that the plans give the Government unprecedented powers to designate “harmful” content.
They said this could lead to “political censorship” online as social media companies would respond by suppressing such content as well as allowing a future secretary of state to use the power to lean on the tech giants to remove speech they subjectively dislike.
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“This will apply to your successors in post, who will include your political opponents,” they said in their letter seen by The Telegraph.
“The ratcheting effect on our civil liberties is already happening in real time. The Labour Party has expressed its intention to expand the regulatory framework to include ‘health-related misinformation and disinformation’.
“This could lead to the state designating social media companies as the arbiter of truth online and presents serious problems for freedom of speech.”
The MPs and peers urge the Government to ditch...
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