Nadine Dorries,UK Digital Secretary
The Online Safety Bill has been dubbed a milestone in the fight for a new digital age, which will hand the country’s communications watchdog the power to fine or even ban offensive websites. It is also designed to protect children from harmful content such as pornography and limit people’s exposure to illegal content
“The internet has transformed our lives for the better. It’s connected us and empowered us. But on the other side, tech firms haven’t been held to account when harm, abuse and criminal behaviour have run riot on their platforms. Instead they have been left to mark their own homework,” said UK Digital Secretary Nadine Dorries
London:
Senior managers at tech companies would face up to two years in prison if they fail to comply with British rules aimed at ensuring online safety for internet users, the UK government said Thursday as it unveiled the draft legislation in Parliament.
The ambitious but controversial online safety bill would give regulators wide-ranging powers to crack down on digital and social media companies like Google, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok.
Authorities in the United Kingdom are the vanguard of a global movement to rein in the power of tech platforms and make them more responsible for harmful material such as child sex abuse, racist content, bullying, fraud and other harmful material that proliferates on their platforms.
Similar efforts are underway in the European Union and United States. While the internet has transformed people’s lives, “tech firms haven’t been held to account when harm, abuse and criminal behavior have run riot on their platforms,” U.K. Digital Secretary Nadine Dorries said in a statement.
“If we fail to act, we risk sacrificing the wellbeing and innocence of countless generations of children to the power of unchecked algorithms.”
British lawmakers still need to vote to approve the bill before it becomes law.
The UK government said internet users are closer to a safer online environment across websites and social media platforms as its “world-first” online safety law was tabled in Parliament on Thursday.
The Online Safety Bill has been dubbed a milestone in the fight for a new digital age, which will hand the country’s communications watchdog the power to fine or even ban offensive websites.
It is also designed to protect children from harmful content such as pornography and limit people’s exposure to illegal content.
The government has said the measures will clamp down on harmful activity online while protecting freedom of speech.
“The internet has transformed our lives for the better. It’s connected us and empowered us. But on the other side, tech firms haven’t been held to account when harm, abuse and criminal behaviour have run riot on their platforms. Instead they have been left to mark their own homework,” said Dorries.
“We don’t give it a second’s thought when we buckle our seat belts to protect ourselves when driving. Given all the risks online, it’s only sensible we ensure similar basic protections for the digital age. If we fail to act, we risk sacrificing the wellbeing and innocence of countless generations of children to the power of unchecked algorithms,” she said.
The UK’s independent media regulator, Office of Communications (Ofcom), will have the power to fine companies failing to comply with the laws up to 10 per cent of their annual global turnover, force them to improve their practices and block non-compliant sites.
Executives whose companies fail to cooperate with Ofcom’s information requests could face prosecution or jail time within two months of the bill becoming law.
A raft of other new offences have also been added to the Bill to make senior managers criminally liable for destroying evidence, failing to attend or providing false information in interviews with Ofcom, and for obstructing the regulator when it enters company offices.
“Our research shows the need for rules that protect users from serious harm, but which also value the great things about being online, including freedom of expression. We’re looking forward to starting the job,” said Ofcom Chief Executive Melanie Dawes.
The Bill gives Ofcom powers to demand information and data from tech companies, including on the role of their algorithms in selecting and displaying content, so it can assess how they are shielding users from harm.
Ofcom will be able to enter companies’ premises to access data and equipment, request interviews with company employees and require companies to undergo an external assessment of how they’re keeping users safe.
The new law will also put requirements on social media firms to protect journalism and democratic political debate on their platforms.
News content will be completely exempt from any regulation under the Bill, the Department for Culture, Media and Sports (DCMS) stressed.
The government has toughened the legislation since it was first written after a committee of lawmakers recommended improvements. Changes include clamping down on anonymous trolls, requiring porn sites to verify users are 18 or older, and making cyberflashing — or sending someone unsolicited graphic images — a criminal offense.
Tech executives would be criminally liable two months after the law takes force, instead of two years afterward as proposed in the original draft. Companies could be fined up to 10% of their annual global revenue for violations.
There’s also a wider range of criminal offenses that could result in prison sentences of up to two years in the updated draft. Initially, tech executives faced prison time for failing to quickly provide regulators with accurate information needed to assess whether their companies are complying with the rules.
Now, they would also face it for suppressing, destroying or altering information requested or not cooperating with regulators, who have the power to enter a tech company’s premises to inspect data and equipment and interview employees.
The government said it will outline categories of harmful but legal material that the biggest online platforms such as Google and Facebook will have to tackle, instead of leaving it up to the “whim of internet executives.”
That’s aimed at addressing concerns of digital activists who worried the law would crimp freedom of speech and expression because companies would be overzealous in removing material that upsets or offends people but isn’t prohibited.
The Bill was first published as a draft in May last year and has since been tightened with the addition of further harmful online activities such as fraud scams, porn, trolling and cyberflashing.
It will now pass through Parliament in the coming weeks before becoming an Act.