The Great Narrative: Two-tier internet – The British State bans free speech under Online Safety Act.

"What appears to be emerging isn't just a two-tier internet, but something subtler and more insidious, a default off mode of speech and expression where access to all lawful content is no longer presumed, but withheld until certain hurdles are cleared. 

"On platform like X, the door is currently closed before users even approach it. Elsewhere, full access depends on navigating a system of checks and classifications. Either way, the long-standing assumption that legal speech should be visible by default is being quietly dismantled."

"That's to sort of intimidate anybody else who might be thinking about it into not doing it in case they get 32 months in prison.… If you criticize the government's policy on anything or, on these particular issues or, go against our ideologies, then you're going to be in trouble, too. 

"The free speech union did a very good write up of what a lot of this entails: At the heart of the regime is a requirement to implement highly effective age checks. If a platform cannot establish with high confidence that a user is over 18, it must restrict access to a wide category of sensitive content even when that content is entirely lawful. This has major implications for platforms where news footage, protest clips or political commentary appear in real time. 

"Offcom's guidance makes clear that simple box ticking exercise like declaring your age or agreeing to terms of service will no longer suffice. Instead platforms are expected to use tools like facial age estimation [facial recognition], ID scans, open banking credentials or digital identity wallets [global digital ID]. So more and more of your information in the government's pocket."

"Why can't they do any of this on illegal migrants coming across the channel?"

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