MOSCOW, June 22. /TASS/. London is trying to establish control in the Internet on the pretext of protecting democratic freedoms and covers us its acts of censorship by accusing Moscow of not allowing free media, spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova wrote on her Telegram channel, commenting on the Online Safety Bill recently introduced in the UK.

According to her, the move represents an attempt by the British authorities "to reclaim the long-gone monopoly on forming narratives in the heads of their subjects." "The British authorities are primarily protecting themselves. <…> They will hide behind the words about ‘democratic importance’ and protection from ‘harmful content’, they will squirm in every way possible away from the simple but clear word ‘censorship’, they will intrude into all areas of law to preserve their control over opinions that is slipping away (who but the good old England should dream of it), but they will still accuse Russia and Russian media of non-freedom of speech," she stressed. 

The British Online Safety Bill particularly envisages vesting the Office of Communications, Ofcom, with the right to fine IT companies that fail to delete harmful content, initiate prosecution procedures against leadership of companies that cannot ensure removal of banned online materials and block Internet resources in case the regulator views the information published there as "dangerous.".