Petition · past parliament

Reject measures in the Digital Economy Bill to censor legal content online

Closed 2,118 signatures

What the petition asks

The Digital Economy Bill has passed its third reading in the Commons. It includes measures to force Internet Service Providers to block pornographic websites which don't verify the age of users via intrusive means, and to censor legal content depicting sexual acts classified "non-conventional".
This amounts to intrusive and dangerous State censorship of legal content online.

While the Government may claim that the aim is solely to protect children from viewing adult content, the reality is that these measures are unnecessary - when ISPs already provide optional filters for such content, bring severe privacy risks, and establish the precedent and framework to allow the Government to censor legal online content of which it simply does not approve.

These measures must be rejected.

Timeline

19 Dec 2016 Petition opened for signatures
2 May 2017 Closed to new signatures

Key facts

Signatures 2,118
Status Closed
Opened 19 Dec 2016
Closed 2 May 2017

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Source: the official petition page. Last checked 15 Jul 2026.