The Westminster honey trap refers to a cybercrime attack perpetrated on a dating app in April this year. The victim was a former MP, William Wragg. It engages the Online Safety Act and sheds light on measures to tackle the sharing of intimate images.

The essence of the case is that an anonymous account on a dating app persuaded Mr Wragg to exchange intimate photos and blackmailed him into revealing contact details of Parliamentary colleagues. Following a police investigation, a man was arrested and charged with offences under the Online Safety Act, and recently, Mr Wragg has been speaking to UK media about the incident. 

Social media users in the EU can claim redress under the Digital Services Act (DSA) if they are shadow-banned - the practice of making posts  invisible but not removing them.  It comes after a a recent case in the Dutch courts which established that the DSA applies to shadow banning when the technique  is used as a content moderation action.  UK users, who are subject to the Online Safety Act,  may not be so lucky.  The Online Safety Act lacks the procedural safeguards that are built in to the DSA. 

The UK’s flagship law has come under fire after viral disinformation led to real-world consequences on Britain’s streets. Notably the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan said it is not fit purpose. This article examines that question. 

Keir Starmer’s strong commitment to keep the UK in the European Convention on Human Rights is very welcome. As he and his government settle in to their new roles, we respectfully remind  them of one piece of law, made under the last government, that may need some attention: the Online Safety Act.

The UK’s Online Safety Act came into force last October.  Conceived under the old government, it is the new Labour government that will have to implement it. We are already hearing about the shocking inheritance that Labour Ministers are finding in other departments. This article considers how the Act may yield  some unpleasant surprises. 

New draft rules for Internet platforms have been released this week by Ofcom. The rules tackle a wide range of content which the government now says is illegal. They address unlawful migration, harassment, online fraud, and even public protests.

This is the first in a suite of expected announcements over the next nine months which will tell the Internet and tech industries what content moderation and other actions they are expected to take.

So what is in the announcement?

TL;DR  The Online Safety Act officially becomes law today. It’s an Act to address some very serious public policy issues that have arisen as the Internet reached maturity, but the divisive politicking employed to get it over the line means that implementation will be a challenge, to say the least. This is not because people don’t want to protect children or tackle abuse – we all do – but because the methods proposed in the Online Safety Act for implementing that protection do not work with the existing global infrastructure.