Age-Gated: 'How the Online Safety Act is Distorting Digital Activism'
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Digital rights advocates, legal experts, and online content creators have told Byline Times that the Online Safety Act's new age authentication measures are "censoring" public interest activism online - as well as sweeping up unrelated content far beyond the Act's stated scope.
Byline Times has confirmed that posts about war crimes, genocide, and humanitarian crises have been age-restricted on Elon Musk's 'X' (formerly Twitter) and Reddit. But so too have more benign corners of the internet, hidden from unverified users behind opaque moderation systems.
The Act imposes a series of new duties on platforms, including an obligation to shield children from "harmful" content. To access restricted posts, users must verify their age - effectively dividing the internet into two tiers. But companies, interpreting Ofcom's guidance and the law's broad definitions, are left to determine which content gets gated.
"The scope for so-called 'harmful content' is subjective and arbitrary," Paige Collings, Senior Speech and Privacy Activist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) said.
"Because the OSA threatens large fines or even jail time for any non-compliance, platforms are forced to over-censor content to ensure that they do not face any such liability. Reports are already showing the censorship of content that falls outside the parameters of the OSA," Collings adds.
Digital rights groups warn that these systems are not only compelling platforms to filter content for children - they're reshaping the overall experience of the entire internet. The new default web will impact how users of all ages communicate and collaborate online.
A growing number of posts, forums, and news content related to Palestine, queer identity, or harm-reduction practices have quietly been age-gated. Sometimes it's graphic content, and sometimes it isn't.
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'Platforms Already Have a History of Over-Moderating Pro-Palestine Voices'
Byline Times has identified multiple examples of Palestine-related content - including protest footage and news commentary - being locked behind age-gates.
Some of these feature graphic imagery, which may trigger moderation protocols. Reddit communities like /r/israelexposed and /r/ukraineconflict have been restricted. So too have videos on 'X' showing police clashing with pro-Palestine protestors.
But others appear more innocuous. Footage from a televised speech about genocide by Dutch-Palestinian author Ramsay Nasr was age-gated. The Reddit community /r/aljazeera - a news aggregation page unaffiliated with the broadcaster - was also blocked.
"All the evidence I've seen on my timeline suggests that the Online Safety Act has nothing to do with porn and everything to do with restricting information on Palestine," Rangzen, a vocal activist with over 40,000 followers on 'X', told Byline Times.
An 'X' screenshot sent in by Rangzen, which he explained shows age-gated comments on a video he posted about a Palestine protest.
Campaigners at Open Rights Group and journalists at BBC Verify have both confirmed numerous other examples of political and public interest content being censored behind age gates. In some cases, their investigations prompted companies to take age-gates down - implying that they may have been done erroneously or via fallible AI tools.
The European Legal Support Centre (ELSC), which aims to end arbitrary restrictions and criminalisation of Palestine advocacy in Europe and Britain, has been following the Act's implementation closely.
"Pro-Palestine content often involves sharing graphic images or videos to highlight violence and humanitarian crises, such as the ongoing situation in Gaza, said Carolina Xavier ...
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Digital rights advocates, legal experts, and online content creators have told Byline Times that the Online Safety Act's new age authentication measures are "censoring" public interest activism online - as well as sweeping up unrelated content far beyond the Act's stated scope.
Byline Times has confirmed that posts about war crimes, genocide, and humanitarian crises have been age-restricted on Elon Musk's 'X' (formerly Twitter) and Reddit. But so too have more benign corners of the internet, hidden from unverified users behind opaque moderation systems.
The Act imposes a series of new duties on platforms, including an obligation to shield children from "harmful" content. To access restricted posts, users must verify their age - effectively dividing the internet into two tiers. But companies, interpreting Ofcom's guidance and the law's broad definitions, are left to determine which content gets gated.
"The scope for so-called 'harmful content' is subjective and arbitrary," Paige Collings, Senior Speech and Privacy Activist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) said.
"Because the OSA threatens large fines or even jail time for any non-compliance, platforms are forced to over-censor content to ensure that they do not face any such liability. Reports are already showing the censorship of content that falls outside the parameters of the OSA," Collings adds.
Digital rights groups warn that these systems are not only compelling platforms to filter content for children - they're reshaping the overall experience of the entire internet. The new default web will impact how users of all ages communicate and collaborate online.
A growing number of posts, forums, and news content related to Palestine, queer identity, or harm-reduction practices have quietly been age-gated. Sometimes it's graphic content, and sometimes it isn't.
Support our mission to provide fearless stories about and outside the media system
Packed with exclusive investigations, analysis, and features
SUBSCRIBE TODAY
'Platforms Already Have a History of Over-Moderating Pro-Palestine Voices'
Byline Times has identified multiple examples of Palestine-related content - including protest footage and news commentary - being locked behind age-gates.
Some of these feature graphic imagery, which may trigger moderation protocols. Reddit communities like /r/israelexposed and /r/ukraineconflict have been restricted. So too have videos on 'X' showing police clashing with pro-Palestine protestors.
But others appear more innocuous. Footage from a televised speech about genocide by Dutch-Palestinian author Ramsay Nasr was age-gated. The Reddit community /r/aljazeera - a news aggregation page unaffiliated with the broadcaster - was also blocked.
"All the evidence I've seen on my timeline suggests that the Online Safety Act has nothing to do with porn and everything to do with restricting information on Palestine," Rangzen, a vocal activist with over 40,000 followers on 'X', told Byline Times.
An 'X' screenshot sent in by Rangzen, which he explained shows age-gated comments on a video he posted about a Palestine protest.
Campaigners at Open Rights Group and journalists at BBC Verify have both confirmed numerous other examples of political and public interest content being censored behind age gates. In some cases, their investigations prompted companies to take age-gates down - implying that they may have been done erroneously or via fallible AI tools.
The European Legal Support Centre (ELSC), which aims to end arbitrary restrictions and criminalisation of Palestine advocacy in Europe and Britain, has been following the Act's implementation closely.
"Pro-Palestine content often involves sharing graphic images or videos to highlight violence and humanitarian crises, such as the ongoing situation in Gaza, said Carolina Xavier ...
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