The UK Parliament’s Science, Innovation and Technology Committee has spoken. And what it wants, in no uncertain terms, is an internet where opinions are shrink-wrapped, inspected, and potentially vaporized for being slightly off-script.
Its latest report, published with all the gravitas of a white paper on national survival, is framed as a response to the “Southport unrest” of 2024; a kerfuffle of confused narratives and bottle-throwing that apparently requires rethinking the entire relationship between the state, the internet, and the British people’s right to say something online.
We obtained a copy of the report of you here.
The Committee’s proposal is a legal downgrading of content they don’t like, and mass surveillance of users.
But don’t worry, it’s all in the name of “public safety” and “combating misinformation.” Which is the modern policy equivalent of “just trust us.”
Despite the ink barely being dry on the Online Safety Act, a law so sprawling and riddled with ambiguity it makes War and Peace look like a pamphlet, the Committee wastes no time throwing it under the bus.
Hellbound and Down 