A natter on regulations, freedom of expression, and open source software


Estimated reading time: < 1
Category: ex-oss UK policy
A still frame from the film "The Post" showing an old printing press, loaded with type blocks which say "free to publish"

My friend Morten Rand-Hendriksen and I used to spend a few days every summer in Europe putting the world to rights. We can’t do that anymore, so we did it virtually. We recorded a chat about legislative threats to freedom of expression, and their potential impacts on open source software communities and projects.

No structure, no slides, no script, just a natter.

Because I’m in the UK and Morten is in Canada, we focused on our two nations’ respective and identically named draft Online Safety Bills.

Here are some links for further reading:

Canadian bill:

UK bill:

Open source implications:

The Author

I’m a UK tech policy wonk based in Glasgow. I work for an open web built around international standards of human rights, privacy, accessibility, and freedom of expression. The content and opinions on this site are mine alone and do not reflect the opinions of any current or previous team.