Sir Keir Starmer has defended the Online Safety Act over claims it curbs freedom of speech.
The Prime Minister said the UK would protect free speech “forever” as he insisted the Act was about “child protection” rather than censorship.
Rules introduced under the Act on July 25 require online platforms to take steps to prevent children accessing harmful content such as pornography or material that encourages suicide.
This includes introducing age verification for websites and ensuring algorithms do not work to harm children by, for example, pushing such content towards them when online.
But while some charities have urged the Government to go further, others have criticised the impact of the rules on freedom of speech because of ministers’ power to direct regulator Ofcom to modify its rules setting out how companies can comply with requirements to crack down on illegal or harmful content.
Speaking alongside Donald Trump during the US president’s visit to Scotland, Sir Keir said: “We’re not censoring anyone. We’ve got some measures which are there to protect children, in particular, from sites like suicide sites.”
He added: “I personally feel very strongly that we should protect our young teenagers, and that’s what it usually is, from things like suicide sites. I don’t see that as a free speech issue, I see that as child protection.”
Mr Trump said he could not imagine the UK censoring his own social media site, Truth Social, joking: “I only say good things about him and this country.”
On Monday, Reform UK’s former chairman Zia Yusuf said the party would scrap the Online Safety Act if it came to power, saying it gave ministers powers that “(Chinese president) Xi Jinping himself would blush at”.
