Mark Littlewood comments on the online harms white paper

Commenting on the regulatory proposals made in the white paper on online harms, Mark Littlewood, Director General at the Institute of Economic Affairs said:

“These draconian regulations will do more harm than good, ushering in new levels of censorship and killing innovation along the way.

“Tech firms understand the importance of tackling harmful material, and are already responding to pressures from their customers and investors who don’t want to see paid advertisements next to extremist content.

“But the threat of fines, or even prosecution, for CEOs if harmful material is posted on their platforms will radically alter the public’s ability to share content online. Such extreme regulations will lead to the adoption of risk-adverse policies, resulting in a downturn for user experience, and more importantly, a crackdown on free speech.

“Granting the UK government power to dictate what content is or isn’t appropriate for people to see sets an extremely dangerous precedent. Instead, more self-regulation should be encouraged to tackle the issue.”

Notes to editors:

For media enquiries please contact Nerissa Chesterfield, Head of Communications: nchesterfield@iea.org.uk or 07791 390 268. Or Emma Revell, Communications Manager: erevell@iea.org.uk or 07931 698 246

For related IEA research on regulating tech giants, click here. 

The mission of the Institute of Economic Affairs is to improve understanding of the fundamental institutions of a free society by analysing and expounding the role of markets in solving economic and social problems and seeks to provide analysis in order to improve the public understanding of economics.

The IEA is a registered educational charity and independent of all political parties.

UK to introduce world first online safety laws