Government accused of ‘weakening’ Online Safety Bill as it removes ‘legal but harmful’ requirement

The government has removed measures from its Online Safety Bill which would have forced social media sites to take down material designated “legal but harmful”, in what Labour called a “major weakening” of the legislation.

Some Conservative MPs had previously warned that the axed measures could threaten free speech and could lead to “political censorship”.

Culture secretary Michelle Donelan argued that removing these aspects of the much-delayed bill would help to finally get it “into law”.