The UK’s Online Safety Act: Magical Thinking?

After reading the UK’s Online Safety Act, I was taken back by its lack of technical specification and its abundance of magical thinking. A harsh opinion perhaps, but first lets us juxtapose its declaration - that ‘it is a legislation designed to make social media companies more responsible for their users’ safety - with the reality of the recent UK riots.

An Existential Threat to our Democracy

The act is also peppered with other bold claims, such as: it will make the UK ‘the safest place in the world to be a child online.’ Or its assertion that ‘companies who fail to comply with an information request from Ofcom could face fines of up to £18 million or 10% of their income. Yet its failure to penalise social media companies, identified as major players in the recent riots, seems to undermine these claims.

Because to date this Act appears to have had no impact on social media companies’ whose platforms played a significant role in propagating disinformation, which contributed to the UK riots.

A situation that has been highlighted by several prominent politicians. For instance, Sadiq Khan has called the bill “not fit for purpose,” urging ministers to act “very, very quickly” to review it. Stating that “the way the algorithms work, …means misinformation can spread very quickly.”

Additionally Peter Kyle, the UK Secretary of Science, Innovation and Technology, has warned that “Elon Musk is the one person who is accountable to no one and his impact on public discourse should not be underestimated”.

Statements that could be interpreted as acknowledgements of the Online Safety Act’s shortcomings.

And with social media companies now posing an existential threat to our democracy I am left wondering if our government has the impetus to truly protect us from these online predators.

Because in my opinion the Online Safety Act fails to address the major motivation behind the new left-wing and right-wing online extremist behaviour, which is their desire for ‘likes’.

A phenomenon that is being perpetuated by social media algorithms, that monetize contrary and disruptive behaviour.

Conclusion

So in conclusion, while the UK’s Online Safety Act falls short in dealing with either the toxic algorithms or the toxic social media business model, we should brace ourselves for more destabilising toxic disinformation.