Online Censorship
Plus: trade madness, public sector productivity, and the laffer curve
In today’s newsletter:
Proven right on Online Safety?
Trade madness continues
Clipping the BMA’s wings
The Online Safety Act debate often felt incredibly lonely. As a small set of free speech advocates stumbled around Westminster over many years warning about the legislation, eyes would simply glaze over what many considered hyperbolic claims.
At one particularly memorable party conference panel, I found myself seated next to two members of the parliamentary committee responsible for scrutinising the legislation. As I raised censorship issues, their expressions could best be described as disdainful. There was shock that anyone might dare to question a law designed to “protect children.”
In a separate meeting with a senior Ofcom official responsible for implementing the law, I was politely assured that excessive implementation is never a problem with regulation, leaving me utterly dumbfounded.
Last week, key provisions of the Online Safety Act requiring the age-gating of adult material and content harmful to children came into force. The results were entirely predictable, and for those who follow the IEA’s work closely, well-understood:
In June 2022, in an IEA briefing paper, Victoria Hewson and I warned that these requirements would result in legitimate information on issues like war and violence being hidden by default, under-18s losing access to swathes of content, non-UK services blocking British users, and VPN usage soaring.
That’s precisely what has happened. From Gaza and Ukraine videos, through to grooming gang trial descriptions, posts have been widely hidden on X and Reddit. There have already been dozens of British sites shut down and overseas sites blocked for UK users, and VPNs are now the most downloaded apps.
This is very much just the start of the issues with this law. As I discussed in my thread on X, the threats to user speech and encryption, as well as regulatory powers for Ofcom and the Secretary of State, are immense. We have entered a new era of Britain’s industrial digital censorship complex.
Rather than engage with these concerns, Technology Secretary Peter Kyle has likened critics of the legislation to notorious sex offender Jimmy Savile. Such rhetoric has only deepened frustration. Across the political spectrum, the appetite for censorship is wearing thin. From Owen Jones to Nigel Farage, voices are uniting in an unlikely chorus: repeal the Online Safety Act.
The battle is far from over. But perhaps, just perhaps, a glimmer of light is breaking through the darkness ahead.
Matthew Lesh
Public Policy Fellow
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IEA Podcast: Executive Director Tom Clougherty, Editorial Director Kristian Niemietz, and Director of Communications Callum Price discuss the Online Safety Act, Ofgem’s plans for progressive bills, and whether Britain really is broken – IEA YouTube
Trade madness continues
Responding to US tariffs, Tom Clougherty said:
The madness continues in American trade policy. Trump’s latest tariffs have no coherent economic rationale and are, first and foremost, an attack on American consumers.
These tariffs are a massive tax increase which will harm American consumers and businesses. Ford, which manufactures more cars in America than anyone else, expects to pay $2bn in tariffs this year. But this is not really about economics; it is about punishing countries which displease the president, and rewarding those who toe the line. Using executive power in this way is an affront to liberal democracy and the rule of law.
The British government deserves some credit for its handling of the situation. But that doesn’t change the fact that our trade with the United States is far less free than it was before President Trump was re-elected.
Free trade remains an essential component of economic efficiency, international competitiveness, and rising living standards. Government-imposed trade barriers only ever enrich special interests; the rest of us bear the cost.
Trump’s tariffs are an ‘affront the rule of law’, says think tank, The Telegraph
Trump’s latest tariffs have no coherent economic rationale, X
News and Views
Public sector productivity growth is a hollow victory, Economics Fellow Julian Jessop, The Telegraph
The public sector is becoming an increasingly unmanageable Leviathan. The Government is taking on more and more functions, while backtracking on commitments to reform in many other areas – from planning regulations to welfare spending. Some real action is needed soon to keep the cost of public services from spiralling out of control.
We must clip the BMA’s wings, Editorial and Research Fellow Professor Len Shackleton, The Telegraph
But many more liberal jurisdictions place considerable constraints on the right to strike. In some US states – including New York, Florida and Texas – doctors in public hospitals cannot strike. The same applies in several Australian states, while any industrial action in other states must go through complicated Fair Work Commission procedures. Where doctors’ strikes are permitted there are usually requirements for notice and for minimum service levels – the latter is being abolished here by the Employment Rights Bill. In Canada, doctors in some provinces may be obliged to submit to binding arbitration.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the laffer curve, IEA on X
The idea that somebody could sue us for breathing is clearly absurd, Energy Analyst Andy Mayer, Talk TV
UK’s Productivity Crisis: Why Britain Can’t Grow, Director of Communications Callum Price interviews economist Vicky Pryce, IEA YouTube
The wealth raid gamble that isn’t paying off, Julian Jessop quoted in The Times
Julian Jessop… said that many had sold assets sooner than they otherwise might have done because they were worried that a Labour government would ramp up wealth taxes.
“There is plenty of anecdotal evidence that Labour’s tax policies are pushing the limits of the Laffer Curve,” he said. “This is also consistent with economic theory and past experience — most countries that adopted wealth taxes have since abandoned them.”
How the Soviet Union Really Collapsed | Part 3 | Rise & Fall of the Soviet Economy, Managing Editor Daniel Freeman interviews Aymen Aulaiwi, IEA YouTube
Overbearing laws are encouraging a breakdown in trust, Head of Lifestyle Economics Dr Chris Snowdon, The Critic
By driving another wedge between the state and the individual, it further normalises rule-breaking in a country where casual lawlessness is becoming part of daily life. A law-abiding society cannot long endure if the median citizen thinks that the law is an ass.
Is the Online Safety Act law in name only?
Last Friday, the Online Safety Act’s (OSA) age verification provisions kicked in for companies hosting adult content accessible to British audiences. These provisions required companies to verify age in "technically accurate, robust, reliable and fair" ways, including use of driving licences, credit cards, and even selfies.
In defence of the RNLI, Editorial and Research Fellow Professor Len Shackleton, CapX
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Len, I want to comment on the Doctors strikes….I'm sure their pay has been eroded in the last 10-15 years snd beyond. To prevent any worker the right to strike is unfair and illegal. It’s a right we must protect. But to seriously expect the most skilled and educated people to be paid a ‘normal’ wage is deluded! Society must pay its way! The private sector doesn’t put up with low wages for skilled people so why should the public sector? What’s wrong is the systems framework not the right to strike or a view they aren’t worth paying! We are expecting the very best of the best, a coalition of the willing, to go the job for less money while expecting them to go above and beyond or making them go the job if their superiors cheaply and in more hours for less is ridiculous and again pointing the finger in the wrong direction! There is a misconception surrounding the private sector paying for the public sector! That view is cobblers Len! Work is work. No less important. In fact the private sector would not exist without the spending power of the state and public sector! With their employment of the private sector, those wouldn’t exist! The truth is both sectors work and spend money! They both rotate money to provide taxes equally! Except there is an increasing realisation that the richest in the public snd private sectors pay less tax pro rata of income and contribute less on a monthly basis to the tax triggering pot because of them NOT spending all their income back in the daily tax triggering pot! No, they keep hold of that money not spent and keeps the rest devoid of its use for long periods of time, whilst paying NO tax on that unspent, unused and idle money! None! No one pays tax on unspent money! Unlike a wealth tax, which takes money without exchange (you get nothing for it) spending money back gets you what you purchase, in a fair exchange! That’s better than getting nothing in taxes! So SPENDING us s better choice! So it’s the inability to collect enough tax revenue is why we cant afford to pay our way better in the public sector! Not expect the public sector to work for less!!… Len, why are we a society that limits its vision to give us missery? Why can’t we get the system framework right to enable proper pay and proper pensions and proper benefits instead of austerity and undercutting work? If we all had a better worth and enjoyed it every day rather than be forced to live in austerity and debt borrowing our own money back, when we can just as easily make all money rotate to pay so much in tax we can afford everything!??? Len, your looking the wrong way! Don’t look down, making others work harder for less. Look the other way, make the unspent money being held away from our tax paying pot and start living happily!???
…. Can I apologise for my spelling errors! I have disabilities that affect my hands and predictive texts don’t help either! But, I think you get my gist!….