DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Nadine Dorries’ promise of changes to the Online Safety Bill go a long way towards defending journalism and limiting the threat to freedom of expression
The Mail welcomes Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries’ promise yesterday of changes to the Online Safety Bill designed to protect recognised news publishers from being censored by social media.
There were deep concerns that in rightly forcing tech giants to remove harmful content from their platforms on pain of huge fines, these companies’ algorithms may also take down legitimate stories on issues such as terrorism and child abuse.
Miss Dorries now pledges three key changes. There will be notification before any material is taken down. There will be a right of appeal. And the material concerned will not be removed until the appeal is completed.
Questions remain to be answered, not least about the appeal process itself. But as long as these changes are written into the Bill, they will go a long way towards limiting the threat to free expression.
The Mail welcomes Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries’ promise yesterday of changes to the Online Safety Bill