UK rows back on review of online rules despite far-right riots

LONDON — No. 10 Downing Street has pushed back on suggestions that the government will tear up Britain’s landmark online safety rulebook in the wake of far-right riots partly stirred up by disinformation and inflammatory rhetoric on social media.
Keir Starmer “does agree that we’re going to need to look more broadly at social media after this disorder,” a spokesperson for the prime minister said on Monday.
However, they said the government’s focus is on “working with the social media companies and ensuring that they’re following their responsibilities” and “getting the existing act implemented quickly and effectively,” rather than seeking to change the existing Online Safety Act.
The government is also seeking to restore order by supporting police to go after people who broke existing laws — including online — by stirring up violence, the spokesperson said.
On Friday, Cabinet Office Minister Nick Thomas-Symonds told the BBC the government was prepared to “quickly review and consider” the Online Safety Act, a landmark law passed by parliament last year that, once fully implemented, will require social media platforms to remove certain categories of illegal content or face hefty fines.
Thomas-Symonds said criticism from Labour’s London mayor, Sadiq Khan, that the act is “not fit for purpose” was “valid”.
The senior minister’s comments came amid speculation that the Labour government could reconsider previously abandoned proposals for the rules to also cover content deemed “legal but harmful.”
But asked whether the Online Safety Act is under active review, the prime minister’s spokesperson on Monday said: “No, I don’t think that’s quite right.”
“We’re very clear that social media companies have a responsibility ensuring that there is no safe place for hatred and illegality on their platforms, and we will work very closely with them to ensure that that is the case,” the spokesperson said. Technology Secretary Peter Kyle is expected to further engage with platforms this week.
No. 10 meanwhile said it would not be drawn into a “back and forth” with billionaire X-owner Elon Musk following his continued attacks on the prime minister — but said Starmer would disagree “completely” with Musk’s description of Starmer as “the biggest threat to free speech in the U.K.’s history.”