QotD: “Online Safety Bill: Crackdown on harmful social media content agreed”

Peers have passed a controversial new law aimed at making social media firms more responsible for users’ safety on their platforms.

The Online Safety Bill has taken years to agree and will force firms to remove illegal content and protect children from some legal but harmful material.

Children’s charity the NSPCC said the law would mean a safer online world.

But critics argued it would allow a regulator, and tech firms to dictate what may or may not be said online.

The nearly 300-page bill will also introduce new rules such as requiring pornography sites to stop children viewing content by checking the ages of users.

While the act is often spoken about as a tool for reining in Big Tech, government figures have suggested more than 20,000 small businesses will also have to comply.

Platforms will also need to show they are committed to removing illegal content including:

child sexual abuse
controlling or coercive behaviour
extreme sexual violence
illegal immigration and people smuggling
promoting or facilitating suicide
promoting self-harm
animal cruelty
selling illegal drugs or weapons
terrorism

New offences have also been included in the bill, including cyber-flashing and the sharing of “deepfake” pornography.

And the bill includes measures to make it easier for bereaved parents to obtain information about their children from tech firms.

The technology secretary Michelle Donelan told the BBC the bill was “extremely comprehensive”.

Asked when there would be evidence of tech firms changing their behaviour she said: “We’ve already started to see that change in behaviour happening.

“As soon as this bill gains Royal Assent, the regulator will be working even more hand in hand with those social media platforms and you’ll see them changing the way that they’re operating”, she added.

Full article here