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UK to regulate internet in crackdown on social media companies
The broadcasting regulator Ofcom will be given the role as the new watchdog, two people familiar with the matter said. The regulator is likely be given the power to fine companies such as Facebook and Twitter if they fail to protect UK users from harmful content, though this will not be formally announced on Wednesday, one of the people said.
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Twitter confirmed that the official Twitter accounts of social media giant Facebook Inc and its Messenger platform were hacked. (Shutterstock/Christian Bertrand)
T
he UK government will announce plans later Wednesday to regulate social media firms as part of a crackdown on damaging online activities such as child exploitation and incitement to violence.
The broadcasting regulator Ofcom will be given the role as the new watchdog, two people familiar with the matter said. The regulator is likely be given the power to fine companies such as Facebook and Twitter if they fail to protect UK users from harmful content, though this will not be formally announced on Wednesday, one of the people said.
The UK is trying to get to grips with ungoverned areas of the internet as it increasingly dominates modern life and exposes children in particular to harmful experiences, including abuse, bullying and terrorist material.
The announcement risks inflaming tensions with the administration of US President Donald Trump, which has already pushed back against Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s plans to roll out in April a digital services tax to target internet giants as international efforts to devise a global solution drag on.
The latest proposals, which would place a duty of care on internet companies, add to a series of measures UK authorities are already taking. As well as the digital services tax plan, last month, Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham unveiled a code of conduct designed to protect children’s data online so they’re less exposed to damaging content.
But so-called online harms represent one of the trickiest areas to regulate because of the vast amount of material that gets posted daily on social media sites, as well as the need to strike a balance between protecting free speech and determining what content needs to be removed.
Implementation of the plan will fall to Melanie Dawes, a civil servant at the Ministry of Housing who Ofcom announced on Wednesday will take up the role of Chief Executive Officer in early March. The regulator’s interim CEO, Jonathan Oxley, issued a statement saying Ofcom shares the government’s “ambition to keep people safe online.”
“We will work with the government to help ensure that regulation provides effective protection for people online and, if appointed, will consider what voluntary steps can be taken in advance of legislation,” Oxley said.
