Why is the UK gov seemingly constantly trying to do stuff like this? Does the UK population as a whole have a significant concern with the viewing of nsfw content?

Tories are just patronizing bastards, bred in the bone, and they’re so far from understanding the tech in question that they end up being led by their registered members… who are in their 80’s.

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It's not just nsfw material, it's the self-harm, pro-ana, pro-suicide material on-line that youngsters are accessing.

Children and young teens don't have the intellectal fibre to realise the signs of self-radicalisation and change their habits.

Should does that mean we should all face extra layers of security and user verification online? It's difficult to know. Does the technology exist to allow for the restrictions the government wants to introduce? No.

Edited to correct typing/syntax

This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 81%. (I'm a bot)

> LONDON - The British government has abandoned a plan to force tech firms to remove internet content that is harmful but legal, after the proposal drew strong criticism from lawmakers and civil liberties groups.

> The U.K. on Tuesday defended its decision to water down the Online Safety Bill, an ambitious but controversial attempt to crack down on online racism, sexual abuse, bullying, fraud and other harmful material.

> Critics had expressed concern that a requirement for the biggest platforms to remove "Legal but harmful" content could lead to censorship and undermine free speech.

Extended Summary | FAQ | Feedback | Top keywords: content^#1 harmful^#2 Bill^#3 legal^#4 Online^#5

Pandering to the base so they can feed billionaires their gruel

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I've always found it incredible that back in the days of not so portable computers it was 'the internet is for porn' & the worst of the world is online, keep your computer in a common room in your house so that you can keep an eye on your children etc, to oh a pocket sized computer let's all give them to our children.

Should the government stay out of adults personal online life without warrent, hell yes. Should children be protected online, also yes. That's the dilemma. Its easy to say personal responsibility and do some parenting but many parents are absolutely clueless on tech and children get hurt.

Labour passed several bills like this. The Regulation of Investigatory Powers act, 2000 and the Digital Economy Act 2010 are Labour bills and both are disgustingly authoritarian.

Furthermore, GCHQ's dragnet internet surveillance system Tempora was designed, tested and implemented under a Labour government.

Canada, under the Liberal Party, is actively seeking to introduce a variety of internet censorship laws, a murky extra-legal tribunal system that can be easily abused to circumvent due process, rules that would force search engines and platforms like YouTube to change their algorithms to prioritize and de-prioritize content based on criteria selected by the government, and all manner of other not particularly “liberal” legislation.

All of this appears to stem from the belief that they know better how people should live their lives than the people they govern, and are therefore taking the opportunity to force their own ideals on everyone else.

This, by the way, from a Prime Minister who was caught having worn blackface as an adult so many times he can’t even remember them all and then “apologized” by saying this was a learning moment for everyone, and also who loudly expresses his support for feminism but later blamed his victim for experiencing their encounter differently after it came to light he had groped a young reporter. So maybe not the kind of person we might want dictating morals to everyone else.

In other words this isn’t a left-right problem, it’s the slow encroachment of authoritarianism into everyone’s day to day lives by the entrenched elite.

Why though?

From an American perspective, it always looks like the UK is trying to outlaw being vaguely scummy.

You can’t protect children online without diminishing the freedom of adults because there is not really a way to reliably filter out children. That’s always been the problem and there is no solution to it.

On the one hand, people scream about free speech, constraints and who decides. Then at the same time (often those very same people) bitch and moan when a company moves towards more free speech. Quite the dichotomy. Clearly society has decided that there are limits to free speech but I doubt there will ever be much agreement on how and what should be

wow pretty surprising enough people actually paid attention to this for them to change course. Well done all.

was it free speech? or was it certain tech giants said no?