MAKING UK THE SAFEST PLACE IN THE WORLD TO BE ONLINE”: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE ONLINE SAFETY ACT AS A CONTENT MODERATION TOOL IN THE BRITISH CYBERSPACE.
Online Safety Act; United Kingdom; content moderation; the rational State; internet regulation; systemic approach; intermediate agente accountability.
This work aims to analyze the UK’s new regulation of internet content moderation, the Online Safety Act 2023 (OSA). To better understand the regulatory choices adopted in the OSA, an analysis of the history of internet regulation in the UK, its strategy of global leadership in online safety (Global Britain in a Competitive Age) and the role of Brexit in the elaboration of the OSA are also undertaken. The scope of the analysis does not seek to assess the new regulation’s potential for success. Instead, it proposes a critical study of the OSA as a political tool of the British government in its aim of reclaiming sovereignty in cyberspace. This is a work of qualitative research, conducted within the Graduate Program in Law of the University of Brasília as part of the research line entitled 'Transformations in Social and Economic Order and Regulation', specialism 'Social Regulation and Public Policies in Education, Science, Technology, and Innovation'. It is associated with the Jean Monnet Excellency Center in Digital Citizenship and Technological Sustainability. The research departs from the premise that the OSA represents a reaction by the rational State against its loss of power over public interest space. Within such context, the new law emerges as a change of paradigm in state regulation, allowing British Administration a greater command over the agency of transnational players through indirect regulation, onerous pecuniary sanctions, and a withdrawal from Court jurisdictions. Given that its extensive dimensions prevent its full exploration in the space of this dissertation, I focus on the duties of care, duties of transparency, the powers afforded to the regulatory authority (the OFCOM), and the possibility of platform accountability in the case of illegal or harmful content circulation. The specific characteristics of the OSA are hence explored through such framework, revealing its systemic approach, its proximity with Administrative Law, and its central tenet of facing cyberspace eminently as a public space. The theoretical contributions of Lawrence Lessig, Evelyn Douek, Paul Schiff Berman, Mike Feintuck, and Vili Lehdonvirta support the entirety of the critical analysis hereby advanced.