Web Bill slammed as ‘watering down’
THE Government has dropped measures to ban ‘legal but harmful’ web content, in what campaigners called a ‘watering down’ of the Online Safety Bill that is ‘very hard to understand’.
Removing the restrictions marks a more ‘common sense’ approach as they could have led to an ‘erosion of free speech’, the Culture Secretary said.
Michelle Donelan also argued the axed measures had been an ‘anchor’ holding the much-delayed Bill back.
The ditching of ‘legal but harmful’ measures marks a win for free speech proponents including Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch, who claimed they would ‘legislate for hurt feelings’, but it faces criticism from other corners of the Tory party.
Ms Donelan’s predecessor Nadine Dorries warned that women would ‘kick off’ about dropping the duty to remove not only illegal content but also any material named in the legislation as legal but potentially harmful - such as glorification of self-harm or eating disorders.
The former culture secretary, who championed the Bill in its previous form, cited the case of Molly Russell, 14, who killed herself after viewing self-harm content online. Molly’s father Ian Russell said the changes to the Bill are ‘very hard to understand’. He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “What we need is the assurance from the Secretary of State that this watering down of the Bill by removing the legal but harmful content is at least boosted in other measures to make it safe for not just young people but for all of us to be online.
“I don’t see how you can see the removal of a whole clause as anything other than a watering down.”
Ms Donelan said the Government is ‘in essence’ introducing ‘legal but harmful for children’ through other provisions in the Bill. She said protections for children have been strengthened and it would be a ‘gross misrepresentation’ to argue otherwise.
“Nothing is getting watered down or taken out when it comes to children,” she told the programme.
“The legal but harmful aspect was pertaining to adults. Content that is harmful or could hurt children that is not illegal, so is legal, will still be removed under this version of the Bill.
“So the content that Molly Russell saw will not be allowed as a result of this Bill.” The legislation aims to tackle the ‘absurd situation’ surrounding the enforcement of age limits, Ms Donelan said, with social media firms that fail to bar under-age children from their platforms facing massive fines.
The updates will require tech firms to show how they enforce their own user age limits, and to publish summaries of risk assessments on potential harm to children and declare details of enforcement action taken against them by regulator Ofcom. Ofcom can fine social media giants up to 10% of annual turnover if they fail to fulfil policies to tackle racist, homophobic or other content harmful to children.