The UK government has amended its Online Safety Bill and removed a section which would have forced big tech firms to remove legal but harmful material.
Critics had claimed that the section posed a serious risk to free speech.
According to the BBC:
Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan denied weakening laws protecting social media users and said adults would have more control over what they saw online.
The bill – which aims to police the internet – is intended to become law in the UK before MPs break next summer.
It previously included a section which required “the largest, highest-risk platforms” to tackle some legal but harmful material accessed by adults.
It meant that the likes of Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, would have been tasked with preventing people being exposed to content like for example self-harm, eating disorder and misogynistic posts.
Instead, tech giants will be told to introduce a system allowing users more control to filter out harmful content they do not want to see.
Ms Donelan told the BBC the bill was not being watered down – and that tech companies had the expertise to protect people online.
“These are massive, massive corporations that have the money, the knowhow and the tech to be able to adhere to this,” she said.
She warned that those who did not comply would face significant fines and “huge reputational damage”.
Some critics of the provision in the bill have argued it opened the door for technology companies to censor legal speech.
It was “legislating for hurt feelings”, former Conservative leadership candidate Kemi Badenoch said…
Lucy Powell MP, Labour’s Shadow Culture Secretary, criticised the decision to remove obligations over “legal but harmful” material.
She said it gave a “free pass to abusers and takes the public for a ride” that it was “a major weakening, not strengthening, of the Bill”.
But Ms Donelan told BBC News the revised bill offered “a triple shield of protection – so it’s certainly not weaker in any sense”.
This could include content promoting eating disorders or inciting hate on the basis of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender reassignment- although, there will be exemptions to allow legitimate debate.
But the first two parts of the triple shield were already included in the draft bill.
