Campaigners have written to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport as well as Facebook, WhatsApp and YouTube to raise concerns about growing online censorship around the Coronavirus pandemic.
The campaign groups Big Brother Watch, Index on Censorship, Open Rights Group and Adam Smith Institute expressed concern about Government pressure to remove lawful content and social media censorship, including automated measures, that are “not proportional or time limited”.
The organisations warned that vital information could be wrongly suppressed and harm public health efforts, writing “trust is incredibly important and it is a dangerous time to hastily re-write rules without considering the consequences”.
The letters can be found here.
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Spokespeople are available for comment. Please contact Big Brother Watch to enquire on 07730439257 / info@bigbrotherwatch.org.uk or each organisation directly.