- Summary- Companies- 'Legal but harmful' element of online safety bill dropped- Social media companies will have to strengthen age checks- Companies could be fined if they fail to tackle illegal contentLONDON, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Britain will not force tech giants to remove content that is "legal but harmful" from their platforms after campaigners and lawmakers raised concerns that the move could curtail free speech, the government said.Donelan said the "harmful but legal" provision, which had been opposed by some lawmakers and had delayed progress of the legislation, would have had "unintended consequences" and eroded free speech.The new iteration goes further to protect free speech by stopping companies, such as Facebook-owner Meta and Twitter, removing content or suspending or banning users where there is no breach of their terms of service or the law."Removing 'legal but harmful' gives a free pass to abusers and takes the public for a ride," said Lucy Powell, Labour's culture spokesperson.The government, however, said the bill, which returns to parliament next month, put the onus on tech companies to take down material that was illegal or was in breach of their own terms of service."