Skip to main content

Britain To Make Social Media Bosses Personally Liable For Harmful Content


Britain's initiative was born out of public anger over the 2017 suicide of a 14-year-old girl who followed social media accounts about depression and self-harm.


Britain will make social media bosses personally liable for harmful content and shut down offending platforms under a "world-leading" government plan published Monday in response to the spread of online abuses and crimes.

The long-delayed and eagerly anticipated proposals lay the groundwork for legislation that could be passed in the coming months.

They were drawn up after consultations with social media moguls such as Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg and have faced little resistance from other platforms that have also been blamed for inciting harmful behaviour online.

"What we're proposing today is that companies that deal with user-generated content should take greater responsibility for keeping those users safe," culture and media minister Jeremy Wright told BBC radio.

"These are world-leading proposals."

Australia also fast-tracked legislation last week that threatened jailed time for social media executives who failed to enact the "expeditious removal" of footage of terrorism and other odious crimes.

Punitive Sanctions

Australia's laws came in direct response to last month's live broadcast by Facebook and YouTube of the slaying of 50 Muslim worshippers in New Zealand.

Britain's initiative was born out of public anger over the 2017 suicide of a 14-year-old girl who followed social media accounts about depression and self-harm.

The proposed UK regulations would see social media companies accept "duty of care" obligations that require them to identify and remove "online harms".

Those that fail would be first issued warnings and then hit  progressively with more punitive sanctions.

The government paper suggests that these include "the creation of new liability (civil fines or extended to criminal liability) for individual senior managers".

The most serious would see internet service providers block non-compliant websites and apps.

"This would only be considered as an option of last resort and deploying such an option would be a decision for the independent regulator alone," the plan says.

The regulations would only apply in Britain and should have no immediate impact on users elsewhere in the world.

But they may prompt other governments to take notice and follow suit.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Three students feared drowned near Pune, search on

As per Pune rural police, the incident took place around 7 am, when a group of six to seven students pursuing MBA course at a college in Pune went to Mulshi dam reservoir in Valne village. Three students, including a girl, who was part of a group that had gone for a trip to Mulshi dam area near Pune on Thursday morning, are feared drowned after they went for a swim, police said. As per Pune rural police, the incident took place around 7 am, when a group of six to seven students pursuing MBA course at a college in Pune went to Mulshi dam reservoir in Valne village, around 40 kilometers from Pune city. Three of the students went for a swim and disappeared after a while, following which other students alerted local residents and police. A search has been launched by local residents and a team from district disaster management along with the police. The three students have been identified as Sangeeta Negi, Shubham Raj Sinha and Shiv Kumar (all aged 22). The autho...

‘Anger, hatred, fear are destructive emotions that destroy inner peace’: Dalai Lama

His Holiness the Dalai Lama speaks on finding antidotes to emotions like anger, hatred and fear to achieve inner peace. One of the toughest battles one fights is with oneself. The numerous emotions that help us express ourselves, most of the times also destroy us, eat away our inner peace or make us question our own existence. Such is the peculiar case with the human mind that if we think about one particular negative emotion, more negative ones tend to follow, completely dis-balancing our thought process. It also creates numerous health issues including physical and mental, immediately or at a later stage and the repercussions can be detrimental to even those associated with us. In order to not let “destructive emotions” like hate, anger and fear take the better of us, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people, says it is important to train the human mind. “Anger, hatred, fear are destructive emotions that destro...

Masood Azhar issue at UNSC headed for settlement, but no Apr 23 deadline: China

“On the issue of listing Azhar, China's position remains unchanged. We also stay in communication with relevant parties. The matter is moving towards the direction of settlement," Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said. Dismissing reports that it had been given a deadline of April 23 by the US, UK and France to lift its “technical hold” on the proposal to list Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist at the United Nations, China on Wednesday said the issue was moving towards a settlement. The development comes after reports said P-3 countries — US, UK and France — had fixed April 23 as the deadline for China to lift its technical hold in the 1267 Committee or else they would press for a discussion on the issue at the UNSC. You need to get clarification from the sources about where you get such information. China’s position is very clear. This issue should be resolved through cooperation. We don’t believe that any efforts without the ...