Ofcom CEO: Exercising Putin-Style Powers Will See Staff Increase By 50%
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According to Melanie Dawes, the newly-appointed CEO of Ofcom, the quango will increase headcount by 400 staff ahead of new powers to police the internet in the Online Safety Bill, which will be voted on in Parliament after Easter,. That’s a lot of censors…
Ofcom will have Putin-style powers to block websites from being seen in the UK if those sites fail to uphold their new legal duty of care to remove “harmful content”. The definition of “harmful content”, of course, will be a political question. Will questioning hurtling towards net-zero whilst millions are in energy poverty be deemed harmful content? Guido gets hate mail from eco-extremists claiming we are responsible for “ecocide” and a “climate apocalypse” for doing so. Will objecting to people with penises using girls’ changing rooms, which is apparently “transphobic hate”, be deemed harmful content? Nadine Dorries might not think this is harmful content, will a future Labour Party culture minister think the same?
Ofcom’s Melanie Dawes told Times Radio
“We’ve got some tough and strong tools in our toolkit as a result of this legislation. And I think we need those. …These very strict and somewhat draconian kinds of sanctions are really only the sort of thing that you would expect to use as a serious last resort.“
If you don’t accept self-censorship and comply, your website will be blocked. Chilling.
