Social media sites such as Facebook and
Mark Zuckerberg, whose Meta company includes Facebook and Instagram, said earlier this week that the shift – which applies only in the US – will mean content moderators “will discover less bad stuff” but will also reduce the number of “innocent” posts being removed. .
Kyle told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg program that the announcement was “an American statement to American service users”.
He added: “If you come and work in this country, you abide by the law, and the law says that illegal content must be removed.”
On Saturday, Ian Russell, the father of Molly Russell, who committed suicide when she was 14 after viewing harmful content online, urged the Prime Minister to tighten online safety rules, saying the UK was “backsliding” on the issue.
He said Zuckerberg and X-Chairman Elon Musk were moving away from security and toward a “laissez-faire, anything-goes model.”
He said companies were turning to “the harmful content that Molly was exposed to.”
A Meta spokesperson told the BBC: “There has been no change in how we deal with content that encourages suicide, self-harm and eating disorders,” and said the company “will continue to use our automated systems to look for this high-risk content.”
Online safety campaigners complain of loopholes in UK laws, including a lack of specific rules covering live streaming or content that encourages suicide and self-harm.
Kyle said current laws relating to online safety were “extremely uneven” and “unsatisfactory”.
The Online Safety Act, passed by the previous government in 2023, originally included plans to force social media companies to remove some “legal but harmful” content such as posts promoting eating disorders.
But the proposal has sparked a backlash from critics who worry it could lead to censorship.
The plan was dropped for adult social media users, and companies were instead asked to give users more control to filter out content they don’t want to see. The law still expects companies to protect children from legal but harmful content.
Kyle expressed frustration with the change but did not say whether he would reintroduce the proposal.
He said the law contained some “very good powers” that he was using to deal “firmly” with new safety concerns, and that in the coming months ministers would get powers to make sure online platforms offer age-appropriate content.
He added that companies that do not abide by the law will face “very strict” penalties.
He also said Parliament needed to quickly update the law to adapt to new technologies, and that he was “very open” about introducing new legislation.