Economic journalist Mani Basharzad reflects on Britain’s Online Safety Act — and what it reveals about the rise of managerialism in public life.

What begins as a discussion of misinformation soon unfolds into something broader: a quiet shift away from the liberal tradition of debate and dissent, toward a more technocratic instinct to manage, correct, and control.

With nods to James Burnham, James Buchanan, and John Stuart Mill, this is a calm but pointed meditation on the value of open inquiry — and a reminder that freedom isn’t always lost through loud confrontation, but through quiet consensus.

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