The Online Safety Bill must be a priority for new PM

Back in 2019, the Conservative Party committed to making the UK “the safest place to be in the world online”. Key to this pledge was the protection people from online abuse and children from access to harmful content.

The introduction of the Online Safety Bill in May 2021 backed up this pledge and for a while, the UK led the way globally in protecting people online. But since then, momentum behind this ground-breaking legislation has come to a halt.

It’s understandable that a new prime minister will want to revisit such legislation and Rishi Sunak has previously expressed concerns about protections around the “legal but harmful content” section of the Bill. Meanwhile abuse, identity theft and fraud continue to be rampant across the UK, and we need revive the momentum now.

It is vital that the UK government continues to support this legislation so it can continue to lead the way in protecting people from abuse, fraud and violence, holding social media firms to account and supporting identity solutions that provide that protection.

Sunak’s new government needs to work with technology providers, anti-fraud providers, regulators, security specialists and financial institutions to build an effective and safe digital framework and make the internet a safer place.