What Will Be the Impact of the UK’s Online Safety Bill on Encryption and Anonymity Online?

The United Kingdom’s recently unveiled Online Safety Bill seeks to protect Internet users from various digital threats by imposing new legal obligations on social media platforms, search engines, and other user-generated content services. Advocates for the bill believe it will provide transparency on how online services moderate their platforms while preventing harmful content from reaching children and adults. Opponents have called this legislation a death sentence for encrypted communications and a loss of anonymity online.

View the Center for Data Innovation's discussion on the Online Safety Bill, its implications for encryption and anonymity, and how policymakers can balance online safety with competing goals.