Peer-reviewed article
Forget about the children: the right-wing backlash against the Online Safety Act
Julian Petley ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view ·Key points
Limitations
Abstract
This contribution to the Forum examines the sudden backlash against the Online Safety Act in those right-wing newspapers which had long clamoured for online censorship and demanded that legislation such as this should be introduced. The article suggests that their concern about children watching porn online rapidly evaporated when they came to see the Act as offering an opportunity to attack the Labour Government, propagandize on behalf of a form of free speech fundamentalism, and express their support for Donald Trump. The article argues that there is a significant difference between libertarian free speech fundamentalism and the concern for freedom of expression based firmly on human rights principles, which I outlined in my recent Porn Studies article ‘Porn and the OSA: What about the Children?’