Tech giants must obey UK’s online safety laws, says minister
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British law has not changed and tech giants must still obey it, the Science Secretary has said in response to Meta’s decision to do away with content moderation teams. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on Tuesday that his social media platforms would replace their longstanding fact-checking programme with a “community notes” system similar to Elon Musk’s X platform.
Mr Zuckerberg said the move, seen by some as an attempt to curry favour with the incoming Donald Trump administration in the US, was about “restoring freedom of expression”. But online safety campaigners have expressed concern that it will allow misinformation to spread more easily and leave children and young people vulnerable to harmful content.
Asked whether social media companies had “changed the game” by moving away from content moderation, Science Secretary Peter Kyle told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg that Meta’s announcement had been “an American statement for American service users”.
He said: “There is one thing that has not changed and that is the law of this land and the determination of this Government to keep everyone safe.”. He added: “Access to the British society and economy is a privilege, it is not a right. “If you come and operate in this country you abide by the law, and the law says illegal content must be taken down.”.
But campaigners have argued that the law does not go far enough in preventing harm. Andy Burrows, chief executive of the Molly Rose Foundation – named after Molly Russell who killed herself after viewing harmful content online – said Mr Kyle was “right that companies must follow UK laws” but said those laws were “simply not strong enough to address big tech’s bonfire of safety measures”.
