The British government’s ambitious plan to block harmful, but legal, content on the internet has been abandoned in hopes that free speech is prioritized. The plan had originally been constructed with intent to block racism, sexism, abuse, fraud, and more but many considered that it would be too strict. The Conservative government of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak claimed that the bill “over-criminalized” online content.

The U.K.’s actions to be loose on internet and social media speech reflects the value of the freedom of speech that America values. It is likely that the value is also what limits social media companies from censoring content on their platforms. However, this also leaves room for a higher risk of online content being harmful to users.