The harmful communications offence, which is currently in the Bill and would have covered posts that cause “serious distress”, has also been removed.
The latest changes come in the wake of other updates to the Bill, including criminalising the encouragement of self-harm and of “downblousing” and the sharing of pornographic deepfakes. But new amendments to the Online Safety Bill will remove this legal obligation, sparking concerns that it will not put enough onus on firms to prevent children from accessing dangerous content.
But Shadow Culture Secretary Lucy Powell said the decision to remove the “legal but harmful” clause was “a major weakening, not strengthening, of the Bill”. But Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza, who will be given a statutory role under the new laws, said the legislation was “a vital moment to protect all children online”.