Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Thursday that Britain "fiercely" protects free speech, but when it was used to incite real harm to children and vulnerable people there was a limit.
"Free speech is one of the founding values of the United Kingdom, and we protect it jealously and fiercely and always will," Starmer told reporters as he stood alongside U.S. President Donald Trump.
"I draw a limit between free speech and the speech of those that want to peddle pedophilia and suicide (on) social media to children," he said.
"Therefore I'm all for free speech, but I'm also for protecting children from things that will harm them."
Britain's new Online Safety Law requires social media companies to remove illegal content on their platforms.
Encouraging self-harm, for example, was made a criminal offence so it was covered by the law.
An attempt by the previous government to ban content that was deemed to "harmful but legal" was abandoned because it risked curbing free speech.
However, police action over social media posts, such as the arrest of Irish comedian Graham Linehan for publishing comments about transgender issues on X earlier this month, had raised questions about how existing laws should apply online.
The police defended Linehan's arrest, but said its officers were in an "impossible position" arbitrating between free speech and criminal content.
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Four people were killed, including a child, in Ukrainian strikes on the Russian port city of Novorossiysk overnight, according to the governor of the Krasnodar region. Ukraine's drone forces commander, Robert Brovdi, said Russian military ships were destroyed in the attacks.
Wildfires have broken out in Türkiye’s Antalya province, forcing hundreds of people to evacuate as strong winds fuelled the flames.
Overnight Iranian strikes on an air base in Jordan damaged multiple U.S. aircraft and left one without a wing, American media reported. Meanwhile, explosions were heard across parts of southern Iran according to local media reports.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) said on Wednesday they attacked two U.S. vessels and eight oil tankers in the Persian Gulf, calling the strikes a response to a U.S. attack on five Iranian tankers.
Ukrainian forces struck a Russian oil refinery in Siberia and a seaport in Dagestan in the past 24 hours, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. He will meet Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Thursday to discuss air defences for Ukraine over winter.
Ukrainian forces struck a Russian oil refinery in Siberia and a seaport in Dagestan in the past 24 hours, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. He will meet Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Thursday to discuss air defences for Ukraine over winter.
Eight Muslim-majority countries have launched a joint push for wider international action against trade linked to Israeli settlements, seeking to build momentum from new measures announced by the UK and other Western governments.
Saudi Arabia is facing a problem that goes beyond the latest Houthi attacks on its southern oil facilities. The kingdom is now dealing with pressure on energy exports at the Strait of Hormuz to the east and the Red Sea route to the west.
Two Azerbaijani sailors were killed on Wednesday when a foreign cargo ship they were travelling on was attacked by drones in the Black Sea, Baku's Foreign Ministry has said.
Iceland’s government plans to introduce legislation in February to permanently ban commercial whaling, potentially leaving Norway and Japan as the world’s only countries still allowing the practice.
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