Technology minister Peter Keir says online safety laws are unsatisfactory

UK laws on internet safety are “very patchy” and “unsatisfactory”, technology minister Peter Keir said after campaigners called for the rules to be tightened.

Ian Russell, who killed Molly Russell when she was 14 after seeing harmful content online, said on Saturday the UK was “backwards” on the issue.

In a letter to the Prime Minister, Russell said the Online Safety Act, which aims to force tech giants to take more responsibility for the content on their websites, needed to be changed and said a “duty of care” should be imposed on the companies.

Speaking to the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg, Keir expressed his “disappointment” with the bill, which was passed by the previous Conservative government in 2023.

The Conservative government initially included plans in the legislation to force social media companies to remove some “lawful but harmful” content, such as posts promoting eating disorders.

However, the proposal sparked a backlash from critics, including current Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, who feared it could lead to censorship.

In July 2022, Badenock, who was not yet a minister at the time, explain The bill was “unfit to become law”, adding: “We should not legislate because it hurts feelings.”

Another Conservative MP, David Davis, said the move risked “the biggest unintended restriction on free speech in modern history”.

Plans to target adult social media users were scrapped and instead companies were asked to give users more control to filter out content they don't want to see. Companies are still required by law to protect children from legal but harmful content.

Keir said the section on legal but harmful content had been removed from the bill, adding: “As a result, I inherited a situation with a very unbalanced and unsatisfactory legislative solution.”

He stopped short of committing to changes to existing legislation but said he was “very open” to the issue.

He also said the bill contained some “very good powers” which he used to “robustly” address new safety concerns, and that in the coming months ministers would be given powers to ensure online platforms provide age-appropriate content.

He said companies that did not comply with the law would face “very severe” sanctions.

After the interview, a Whitehall source told the BBC that the government had no intention of repealing the Cybersecurity Act or passing a second bill, but would instead work within what ministers believed were its limitations.

One source said ministers were not ruling out further legislation but wanted to be “flexible and quick” to keep up with rapidly changing trends.

In the letter, Ian Russell noted that “ominous” changes in the technology industry have put greater pressure on the government to take action.

Mark Zuckerberg, the boss of Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, and Elon Musk, the owner of social media site X, “are at the forefront of a massive shakeup in the industry,” he said.

He accused Zuckerberg of moving from safety to a “laissez-faire, freewheeling model” and “reverting back to the harmful content that Molly was exposed to.”

Earlier this week, Zuckerberg said Meta would be getting rid of fact checkers and replacing them with a system already introduced by X that allows users to add “community notes” to social media posts they deem untrue.

This marks a change from Meta's previous approach, launched in 2016, in which third-party reviewers would examine posts on Facebook and Instagram that appeared to be false or misleading.

Content flagged as inaccurate will be moved lower in the user's feed and labeled to provide viewers with more information about the topic.

Defending the new system, Zuckerberg said moderators were “too politically biased” and “it's time to return to our roots of free speech.”

The move comes as Meta seeks to improve relations with incoming U.S. President Donald Trump, who has previously accused the company of censoring right-wing voices.

Zuckerberg said the change, which only applies to the U.S., means content reviewers will “find less bad content” but will also reduce the number of “innocent” posts that are removed.

In response to Russell's criticism, a Meta spokesperson told the BBC there was “no change in the way we treat content that encourages suicide, self-harm and eating disorders” and said the company would “continue to use our automated systems to scan for high-risk content” . -Serious content”.

When asked about the change, Kyle said the announcement was “an American statement for American service users,” adding: “One thing that hasn't changed is the law of the land.”

“If you come to this country and do business, you obey the law, and the law says illegal content must be removed,” he said.

Rules in the Online Safety Act, which will come into force later this year, force social media companies to show they are removing illegal content such as child sexual abuse, material that incites violence and posts that promote or assist suicide.

The law also states that companies must protect children from harmful content, including pornography, content that promotes self-harm, bullying and content that encourages dangerous stunts.

The platform is expected to employ “age-guaranteed technology” to prevent children from seeing harmful content.

The law also requires companies to take action against illegal, state-sponsored disinformation. If their services may be accessed by children, they should also take steps to protect users from misinformation.