416: Britain Censors the Internet (and More)

Tech Policy Podcast

TechFreedom

Technology

4.8 • 45 Ratings

🗓️ 25 August 2025

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Shoshana Weissmann (R Street) discusses the disastrous Online Safety Act, the growth of censorship in the UK, and more. Topics include: - Protect the children, they said . . . - The SpongeBob videos must stop - Solve problems? Or just shut people up? - How dare you comply with our law! - Age verification in practice - Peter Kyle: polite demagogue - Let’s kill KOSA - UK: global speech police? - “Rights”: you keep using that word . . . Links: U.K.’s Online Safety Act Censors the Internet—A Preview of U.S. Proposals (https://tinyurl.com/hbeeyr7k) Tech Policy Podcast 405: No, Internet Age Verification Has Not Been “Solved” (https://tinyurl.com/bdfd7vrb) Tech Policy Podcast 404: The Worst Possible Moment to Break Encryption (https://tinyurl.com/4evtwv8z) Tech Policy Podcast 356: The UK Targets End-to-End Encryption (https://tinyurl.com/4x6nbvss) Tech Policy Podcast 354: Online Age Verification (Sucks) (https://tinyurl.com/275z8bsh)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Free speech in the United Kingdom is not doing so high.
0:29.6	Police knock on doors to probe, quote, non-crime hate incidents.
0:35.8	They'll question you because, in the words of one officer, they need, quote,
0:41.3	to check your thinking. They're inspecting home libraries. They're investigating comedians for their
0:49.6	jokes. They're arresting people for praying outside abortion clinics. They're arresting people for preying outside abortion clinics.
0:55.3	They're arresting people for holding up signs or cartoons in support of Palestine activists.
1:01.1	They are arresting people for sending emails and WhatsApp messages about their kids' schools.
1:08.2	Britain has even revived prosecutions for blasphemy.
1:12.8	Speech is being restricted, particularly online, in alarming ways, warns the economist,
1:22.0	and at an increasingly alarming rate.
1:25.7	More than a thousand people a month are arrested in the UK for something they said
1:30.6	online. And all this was before the child safety provisions in the Online Safety Act took effect
1:40.2	on July 25th. That law forces websites to implement age verification on pain of heavy fines or even
1:49.5	criminal prosecution, ostensibly to shield children from harmful content. The results,
1:57.9	predictably have been catastrophic.
2:04.5	News coverage of the war in Gaza.
2:09.0	Footage of the arrest of anti-asylum protesters.
2:12.6	Reddit forums on quitting smoking.
2:17.7	Even Spotify playlists and Xbox chats.
2:22.9	All are being age-gated or blocked outright.
2:28.1	This is the Tech Policy Podcast.
2:30.2	I'm Corbyn Barthold.
	...

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