Overview
- The free-market think tank released a non-legislative proposal co-authored by lawyer Preston Byrne that it presents as a British equivalent of the U.S. First Amendment.
- The text seeks to scrap the Online Safety Act, the Public Order Acts and the Malicious Communications Act, and it would strip Ofcom of broad powers to regulate content.
- The proposal would create a statutory right to expression that protects speech many find offensive or indecent, and it adopts the U.S. Brandenburg rule that only incitement to imminent lawless action can be punished.
- The authors say decriminalising speech they consider morally repugnant is intentional, arguing current rules have driven large numbers of arrests for online posts.
- The model remains outside Parliament, with supporters pitching it to grassroots audiences after the government told police to stop pursuing legal social media posts.