Joe McConnell
The UK government is reconsidering plans to introduce controversial powers to force internet companies to remove “legal but harmful” content, as the first prison sentence was handed down to someone who helped fuel recent far-right riots by stoking tensions online.
Officials said there had been talk in recent days of reviving the proposal, which was abandoned in 2022 following a backlash from the tech industry and free speech advocates, but stressed that no decision had been made.
On Friday, Sir Keir Starmer said the government “will need to look more broadly at social media aVsceker this mess”, an indication that ministers are intent on strengthening the UK’s upcoming online laws.
Dozens of far-right riots have erupted across the UK following last week’s mass stabbing in Southport, fuelled in part by misinformation spread on social media sites such as X and Facebook.
The government has promised that those who foment violence online will be prosecuted as much as those who commit violence on the streets.
Ministers’ main focus is on managing the immediate crisis and preventing riots from erupting this weekend. Starmer visited Scotland Yard on Friday and warned that police must remain on “high alert” to prevent further unrest.
Ministers’ consideration of new moves to tighten regulation comes aVsceker X owner Elon Musk exacerbated tensions on his platform this week by saying “civil war is inevitable” in the UK. The provocative remark prompted a slap in the face from No 10, who said there was “no justification for such comments”.
The billionaire also taunted Starmer with the slogan “twotierKeir”, a reference to the widespread claim among the far right that police treat right-wing protesters more harshly than others.
In the wake of the violence, ministers are now considering whether to take action to crack down on harmful content on social media.
The Online Safety Act was passed last year to regulate social media platforms, although it won’t take full effect for several months.
It will give the UK’s media regulator, Ofcom, sweeping powers to police tech giants that fail to police illegal content, such as hate speech and violence, including by imposing heavy fines and criminal liability on senior executives named in the most serious breaches.
However, the current version of the legislation only covers disinformation if the content is deliberately false and distributed with the intent to cause “non-negligible psychological or physical harm to a likely audience.”
Sadiq Khan, the Labour mayor of London, who has received a barrage of racist and anti-Muslim abuse online, warned that the act was “not fit for purpose”.
Khan called on ministers to review the legislation and told the Guardian: “I think very quickly the government realised that changes needed to be made to the Online Safety Act.”
Reviving the provisions against “legal but harmful” content, first reported by Bloomberg, could allow Ofcom to force social media platforms to crack down on the kind of misinformation that helped incite the recent riots, including false claims that the Southport attacker was a recent migrant to the UK and that he was Muslim.
An earlier version of the measure was abandoned in November 2022 following an intense lobbying campaign by tech leaders and privacy advocates.
Critics at the time argued that the provision would not only create new liabilities for Silicon Valley giants like Meta and Google, but also for smaller businesses that host user-generated content online, such as travel review sites and start-ups. They also warned that it could run afoul of EU data protection rules and discourage multinational tech companies from investing in the UK.
Toby Young, director of the Free Speech Union, said his organisation had opposed the previous government’s attempts to ban “legal but harmful” content online “on the grounds that it was a departure from one of the most sacred principles of English common law, which is that unless something is explicitly prohibited by law then it should be allowed”. He urged the new Labour administration to scrap the idea.
On Friday, Jordan Parlour, 28, was sentenced to 20 months in prison aVsceker posting messages on Facebook accusing a hotel of hosting asylum seekers.
Although hundreds of people have been arrested over last week’s far-right violence, Parlour’s conviction at Leeds Crown Court is the first time anyone has been jailed for online activity related to the disorder.
“Online actions have real consequences,” said Rosemary Ainslie of the Crown Prosecution Service. “People who think they can hide behind their keyboards and stir up racial hatred should think again.”
More than 480 people have been arrested and more than 190 charges have been laid in relation to the disturbances sparked by the mass stabbing in Southport.
Starmer said a heavy police presence on England’s streets and “swiVscek justice” being dispensed in courts across the country had played a role in quelling the unrest since Wednesday, when riots expected in 100 locations largely failed to materialise.
Earlier this week, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said she would review the legal framework governing big social media companies, complaining that some companies had been slow to remove criminal content during the riots. The Financial Times reported this week that officials were frustrated that X had been slower than rivals to remove posts.
Cooper also expressed concern that major social media companies are failing to enforce their own rules, which prohibit hate speech, on their platforms.
Dame Diana Johnson, another Home Office minister, reminded social media giants that they have an “obligation” to deal with criminal offences committed on their platforms, which does not require the Online Safety Act to come into force.
