The UK is planning to regulate social media firms over their content removal practices.

The British government wants companies to have a duty to be impartial, preventing them from “arbitrarily” removing comments because they are controversial.

UK ministers will put forth a bill for a statutory duty of care, to be enforced by Ofcom, the broadcasting regulator.

Any firms that do not meet the obligations will face multimillion-pound fines or be blocked from operating in Britain.

The Times newspaper has cited a source as saying that the British government does not want social media companies to remove legitimate content on grounds that it was controversial, rather than it actually being harmful or inaccurate.