X criticises Online Safety Act - and warns it's putting free speech in the UK at risk

The Online Safety Act is putting escaped code astatine hazard and needs important adjustments, Elon Musk's societal web X has warned.

New rules that came into unit past week necessitate platforms specified arsenic Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and X - arsenic good arsenic sites hosting pornography - to bring successful measures to beryllium that idiosyncratic utilizing them is implicit the property of 18.

The Online Safety Act requires sites to support children and to region amerciable content, but critics person said that the rules person been implemented excessively broadly, resulting successful the censorship of ineligible content.

X has warned the act's laudable intentions were "at hazard of being overshadowed by the breadth of its regulatory reach".

It said: "When lawmakers approved these measures, they made a conscientious determination to summation censorship successful the sanction of 'online safety'.

"It is just to inquire if UK citizens were arsenic alert of the trade-off being made."

X claims the timetable for platforms to conscionable mandatory measures had been unnecessarily choky - and contempt complying, sites inactive faced threats of enforcement and fines, "encouraging over-censorship".

"A balanced attack is the lone mode to support idiosyncratic liberties, promote innovation and safeguard children. It's harmless to accidental that important changes indispensable instrumentality spot to execute these objectives successful the UK," it said.

A UK authorities spokesperson said it is "demonstrably false" that the Online Safety Act compromises escaped speech.

"As good arsenic ineligible duties to support children safe, the precise aforesaid instrumentality places wide and unequivocal duties connected platforms to support state of expression," they added.

Users person complained astir property checks that necessitate idiosyncratic information to beryllium uploaded to entree sites that amusement pornography, and 468,000 radical person already signed a petition asking for the caller instrumentality to beryllium repealed.

In effect to the petition, the authorities said it had "no plans" to reverse the Online Safety Act.

Reform UK's person Nigel Farage likened the caller rules to "state suppression of genuine escaped speech" and said his enactment would ditch the regulations.

Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said connected Tuesday that those who wanted to overturn the enactment were "on the broadside of predators" - to which Mr Farage demanded an apology, calling Mr Kyle's comments "absolutely disgusting".

Regulator Ofcom said connected Thursday it had launched an investigation into however 4 companies - that collectively tally 34 pornography sites - are complying with caller age-check requirements.

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These companies - 8579 LLC, AVS Group Ltd, Kick Online Entertainment S.A. and Trendio Ltd - tally dozens of sites, and collectively person much than 9 cardinal unsocial monthly UK visitors, the net watchdog said.

The regulator said it prioritised the companies based connected the hazard of harm posed by the services they operated and their idiosyncratic numbers.

It adds to the 11 investigations already successful progress into 4chan, arsenic good arsenic an unnamed online termination forum, 7 file-sharing services, and 2 big websites.

Ofcom said it expects to marque further enforcement announcements successful the coming months.