Marc Andreessen complains to Downing Street about Online Safety Act and UK tech minister

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favorite tales on this weekly e-newsletter.Marc Andreessen, one of many world’s strongest enterprise capitalists, has complained to Downing Avenue concerning the UK’s On-line Security Act, as a part of a worldwide backlash in opposition to the pioneering laws.The billionaire co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz contacted Quantity 10 final week. He additionally known as for Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to reprimand know-how secretary Peter Kyle after he mentioned opponents of the laws had been on the “facet” of intercourse offenders, in keeping with folks aware of the feedback.The intervention from some of the influential Silicon Valley figures comes amid widespread criticism of the brand new powers that require platforms exhibiting content material that might be dangerous to kids to confirm their customers’ age. The UK laws marks the primary try by one of many web trade’s largest markets to power tech corporations to stop kids from being uncovered to violent or sexually specific content material, after years of criticism that social media corporations turned a blind eye to on-line harms propagated by their apps.Hundreds of platforms, together with Google, X, Fb, Reddit, OnlyFans and pornography websites, at the moment are blocking entry to some content material except customers can show they’re over 18 utilizing strategies reminiscent of picture ID, facial age estimation, bank card checks and e-mail operator verification.There was a corresponding surge in the usage of instruments that disguise a person’s real-world location to bypass the UK restrictions. Digital personal networks [VPNs] — which route a smartphone or PC’s web site visitors to a different nation, bypassing native community suppliers — can be utilized to bypass the OSA.In an indication that the federal government was caught off guard by the extent to which these instruments can be used, ministers final week requested knowledge from the web regulator Ofcom about how and when VPNs had been being downloaded, in keeping with two folks briefed on the transfer.Kyle has mentioned publicly that he’s not contemplating any ban on VPNs, however officers say ministers are eager to grasp how the instruments are getting used, notably by kids.Know-how secretary Peter Kyle has requested for knowledge on the utilization of instruments to bypass the restrictions, reminiscent of VPNs © Stefan Rousseau/PAThe UK is without doubt one of the first democratic international locations to impose such strict content material controls on tech corporations, making it a take a look at case that shall be scrutinised around the globe. On-line platforms present in breach of the brand new guidelines face penalties of as much as £18mn or 10 per cent of worldwide turnover, whichever is bigger.The brand new powers have come beneath hearth from a variety of critics throughout the political spectrum, in each the UK and the US, with many questioning whether or not they may succeed at defending kids from dangerous content material, and others arguing that it’ll trigger severe unintended hurt to individuals who adjust to the legislation.The populist Reform UK get together has leapt on examples of platforms imposing age restrictions on inoffensive content material, describing it as “monstrous censorship”. In the meantime, greater than half 1,000,000 folks have signed a petition for the act to be repealed. Free speech evangelists reminiscent of Andreessen, who sits on Meta’s board, and Elon Musk’s X have criticised the act for curbing folks’s skill to entry and disseminate info on-line, after incidents during which websites reminiscent of social media platform Reddit and music streaming web site Spotify launched age restrictions on some content material.In the meantime, privateness campaigners argue the laws has opened an area for unscrupulous corporations purporting to offer age assurance companies to assemble and misuse reams of non-public knowledge.“Creating databases to retailer knowledge used to find out folks’s age will act as a honeypot for hackers and malicious actors as a result of they’re compiling helpful info that may be bought afterwards,” mentioned David Frautschy, a senior director on the Web Society, an advocacy group. “This isn’t the way in which to make the web safer. This isn’t what the legislation was meant for.”RecommendedOne senior authorities determine mentioned that ministers had been annoyed by the “overzealous” software of the legislation by some platforms, amid ideas that some corporations are deliberately over-interpreting the laws with a view to undermine its credibility.The official warned that platforms have an obligation to uphold freedom of expression beneath the OSA, and might be fined by Ofcom in the event that they fail to take action.“There are clear examples of corporations doing issues despite the fact that Ofcom’s steering clearly doesn’t require them to take action,” they mentioned, including that the OSA had “turn into a little bit of a political punchbag”.One other senior authorities official described Andreessen’s intervention as “sabre-rattling from massive tech”, including that they believed it was motivated by anger a couple of UK regulator “having the ability to tremendous them massive numbers” in addition to a libertarian aversion to something that appeared like censorship. Andreessen didn’t reply to a request for remark.Neil Ross, director for know-how, media and telecoms on the analysis consultancy Public First, mentioned he thought the problem was “a flash within the pan”, including that “the anti-OSA crew are a extremely on-line minority and previous opinion polling is overwhelmingly in favour of defending kids”. Others are much less satisfied. “If there’s a notion of over-reach, that may be fairly damaging,” mentioned one Whitehall official, who added that if there have been embarrassing instances of the legislation going fallacious and the potential of authorized motion, “that’s the place issues can begin to crumble”.