Culture Secretary: ‘Problematic wording in Online Safety Bill will be changed’

The new Culture Secretary has said the Online Safety Bill will be altered to address concerns about its impact on freedom of speech.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Michelle Donelan told Justin Webb that the controversial wording in the Bill relating to the restriction of ‘legal but harmful’ content “will be changing”.

She was speaking as the inquest into the death of teenager Molly Russell begins. Molly took her own life after being exposed to online content relating to suicide and self-harm.

Delay

The Online Safety Bill aims to prevent under-18s from being exposed to harmful content, as well as forcing pornographic websites to implement age-verification systems to prevent children from accessing explicit material.

But the Bill also gives strong incentives for social media companies to restrict content which is ‘legal but harmful’ to adults and empowers Government ministers to decide what this covers.

It had been expected to be brought before Parliament before the summer but was pushed back until the autumn due to lack of time following Boris Johnson’s resignation as Prime Minister.

Punitive fines

Prior to her appointment to No. 10, Liz Truss said the Bill must allow freedom of speech to flourish, as well as protect under-18s from harmful content.

Donelan has now confirmed this by stating: “We will be ensuring that children are protected.”

She said the focus of the Bill is to ensure that social media providers and websites that generate user content which “act in the wrong way” can be hit with “massive” punitive fines that would prevent them doing so again”.

‘Free speech champion’

Donelan continued: “My clear objective is to get this Bill back to the House quickly, to edit the bit that we’ve been very upfront that we’re editing, and to make sure that we get it into law.

“We want it in law as soon as possible to protect children when they’re accessing content online.”

Responding to concerns that the Bill would restrict free speech for adults, she described herself as a “champion of free speech” and concluded: “We do need to make sure that we’ve got the balance right in this piece of legislation”, adding that where changes need to be made “we certainly won’t shy away from that”.