The Online Safety Act recently rolled out in the UK and you’ll be very happy to hear it’s a raging dumpster fire.
But this newsletter isn’t about that per se. Instead, in this poorly-considered mire, there’s a kernel of truth, a little glowing nugget that reveals what’s wrong with much technology regulation.
Before we get to this little-discussed point, let’s cut up some context into bite-sized chunks and have a good old gobble.
So, the Online Safety Act 2023. Theoretically it’s a Pretty Good Thing. You know, it’s hard to feel overly negative about an initiative that tries to stop online content that’s illegal or harmful to kids.
Put it this way: a statement like “we should stop young kids watching porn” is so agreeable that only the nuttiest amongst us could even begin to disagree with it.
Even how the UK government is trying to get companies to comply makes sense, with businesses told to alter algorithms, remove harmful material, and verify user ages, or risk being fined.
Again, on paper, cool. It makes sense. Until we start thinking about the true test of any policy: implementation and enforcement.
Fundamentally, a law is only as good as the system’s ability to ensure people follow it.
For example, it’s easy to declare downloading Severance illegal, but unless you actually have the staff, resources, and legal bandwidth to catch and prosecute pirates, then the law’s not worth the ink it’s written in. It’s more guideline than requirement. People will watch copies of the show safe in the knowledge that nothing bad will happen to them.
The Online Safety Act makes this approach to media piracy look like the work of geniuses. Surely, this law’s implementation involved the UK government shitting the bed and then rolling around in that shit before topping it all off by taking a little leap into a river of shit.
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