British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said that the British are fiercely protective of free speech, but when there is incitement to harm children and other vulnerable people, measures must be taken, writes Reuters.
Meeting with journalists with US President Donald Trump, Starmer said: “Free speech is one of the founding values of the United Kingdom, and we protect it jealously and fiercely and always will.”
However, he added that there is a line between freedom of speech and those who incite children to pedophilia and self-harm on social networks. “Therefore I’m all for free speech, but I’m also for protecting children from things that will harm them,” the Prime Minister said.
Britain’s new
Online Safety Act requires social media companies to remove illegal content from their platforms.
For example, encouraging self-harm is a criminal offence. The previous government backed down from trying to ban content that was “harmful but lawful” because it risked undermining freedom of expression. However, police actions in some cases, such as the arrest of Irish comedian Graham Linehan for comments about transgender people, have raised questions about how the law is being applied. Police believe the comedian’s arrest was justified, but have also said they are faced with a difficult situation in finding a balance between freedom of expression and policing criminal content.
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