Back to the Online Safety Act which, since it came into force just over a week ago, has sparked outrage across the country as social media posts showing rioters fighting with police have been suppressed while those referring to sexual attacks have been automatically flagged as pornographic. As the Spectator‘s cover piece noted last week, footage from a protest outside the Britannia Hotel in Leeds, which showed police officers restraining and arresting a protestor, now can’t be easily accessed in Britain. But while opposition leaders like Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage have slammed the legislation, Mr S has been rather intrigued to find out who exactly supports it.
More in Common polling has revealed that, staggeringly, almost six in ten people support the Act. While seven in ten Labour voters back the legislation it transpires, rather curiously, that Reform UK voters are the most divided about it all. While a third of Farage-backers are against the legislation, one in two Reform voters are in favour of the law. Despite this, however, Reform UK supporters tend to be more concerned about political posts being restricted by social media platforms under the law – with 83 per cent of Farage-supporters flagging this is as a worry compared with seven in ten of the general population.
The data drop comes after Farage’s party vowed to repeal the legislation if Reform win the next general election – with both Nige and his DOGE lead, former chair Zia Yusuf, agreeing that an alternative way to guarantee child safety online is necessary. Yet despite admitting an alternative solution to the Act would be required, the Reform lot became the focus of attacks from Labour – with Science Secretary Peter Kyle suggesting that Farage was ‘on the side of’ sexual predators like, er, Jimmy Savile over his stance.
Whether this was an appropriate comment to make has not divided voters across the political spectrum quite as much as the Online Safety Act itself. More in Common polling shows that more than six in ten Brits believe Kyle’s remark – which were subsequently doubled down on by government ministers – was ‘an inappropriate thing to say’. While those most outraged by the comparison were Reform UK voters (83 per cent) and Tory voters (71 per cent), more than half of Labour voters were left unimpressed by Kyle’s words. Eight in ten Reform voters think Kyle should apologise – as do almost two-thirds of Tories and, um, around half of Labour supporters. Dear oh dear. It looks like Sir Keir Starmer’s strategists may have to go back to the drawing board on this one…
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