New UK prime minister Liz Truss is set to water down draft legislation designed to make the internet safer in response to rightwing Conservative MPs’ concerns about its regulatory over-reach and restrictions on free speech.
The proposed “online safety bill” is designed to force tech platforms such as Google, Facebook and Twitter to tackle harmful content on the internet — ranging from issues such as threatening behaviour to racist and sexual abuse.
The groundbreaking draft legislation is being watched closely by regulators around the world and has been vigorously opposed by tech companies which could end up facing huge fines if they breach the new law.
Truss confirmed on Wednesday that she would dilute the plans when the delayed bill returns to the House of Commons in the current parliamentary session.
“What I want to make sure is we protect the under-18s from harm, but we also make sure free speech is allowed, so there may be some tweaks required,” she said.
Officials have been working to change the definition of what is deemed “legal but harmful” under the proposed legislation, the Financial Times has learnt, in order to give greater scope to say online what would be acceptable in person even if someone deems it offensive.
Former Tory leadership hopeful Kemi Badenoch, who is now international trade secretary, over the summer attacked the bill as “legislating for hurt feelings”, while senior backbencher David Davis has said that there was the risk of the “biggest accidental curtailment of free speech in modern history”, given rules on social media companies to restrict such “legal but harmful” content.
One official said the outcome of these changes would be to make it a simpler bill aimed more at keeping children safe on the internet, rather than limiting what adults can legally say and do online.
Truss told a Tory leadership campaign event this summer that “where it’s about adults being able to speak freely, they absolutely should be, and it should be the same online as offline”.
Another official said that ministers wanted “to play down the controversy over people theoretically getting into trouble over what they say . . . some people in the party have been worried about the free-speech aspects”.
He added: “Ironically some of them have come to realise that there are more supporters of the bill than visceral opponents. But some of the latter have been misinterpreting the bill. What we are talking about here is seriously abusive behaviour like racism or misogyny.”
Former culture secretary Nadine Dorries championed the bill and had sought to keep the scope intact, defending it from Badenoch’s comments with the tweet: “which part of the bill legislates for hurt feelings, Kemi?”
Neil Ross, associate director for policy at TechUK, the industry lobby group, said “removing the application of the legal but harmful provision to adults from the online safety bill would be an important and welcome step the new prime minister could take”.
He added: “This would help ensure the bill is workable for the 25,000 businesses in scope and millions of internet users that will be affected. Doing so would focus the bill back on its core objectives of protecting children online, removing illegal content while also upholding freedom of speech.”
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