Tech giants will be bound by law to prevent social media scandals
SOCIAL media firms will be required to agree legally binding terms and conditions to prevent a repeat of scandals like the suicide of teenager Molly Russell under duty of care plans being considered by Boris Johnson.
The tech giants will face multi-million-pound fines by the online harms regulator Ofcom if they breach the agreements – and the prospect of being forced to suspend services unless they can remedy the failings.
Oliver Dowden, the Culture Secretary, who presented the plan to No 10 with Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, pledged the firms’ codes to tackle content such as self-harm and eating disorders would have to be “meaningful” and vetted by the regulator to ensure they were “proper” and “effective”.
The current proposals are thought to stop short of criminal sanctions against the firms for breaches over “legal but harmful” content such as self-harm videos, but executives will be held accountable for companies’ policies and face fines and disqualification for breaches.
Criminal sanctions will be reserved for illegal online material such as child abuse and terrorism, with the legal responsibilities of social media firms to meet their duty of care on such content spelt out in codes of practice.
Ms Patel has pressed for tough sanctions against such abuses in the knowledge that even fines set at a maximum of four per cent of global turnover will not deter companies like Facebook, which has reserves of more than $50 billion ( £ 38 billion) and increased profits through the pandemic.
Mr Dowden has told Cabinet colleagues the measures must be robust enough for him “to be able to look victims in the eye”.
Caroline Dinenage, the digital minister, who met Ian Russell, the father of Molly, who took her life after viewing self-harm content, said the “chilling” i nsight i nto his experience had strengthened her resolve to ensure the legislation was “fit for purpose” and not “watered down”. The Daily Telegraph understands Mr Russell pushed for Ofcom to have powers to inspect and enforce changes to social media algorithms that spread dangerous content.
The proposals, set out as a response to the consultation on last year’s White Paper, are expected to be published after the US election next month once agreed by the Prime Minister.
Some campaigners fear intense lobbying by the tech giants and Tory MPS concerned about potential threats to free speech could lead to the plans being watered down.
“Regulation will fail if it’s tough on paper but weak in reality. Unless the Government commits to strong financial and criminal sanctions, there isn’t the deterrence value to make some of the biggest firms in the world take notice,” said Andy Burrows, the NSPCC’S head of child safety online policy.
The demands are backed by Mr Russell who believes senior tech executives should face the threat of criminal prosecution in cases where there are serious breaches of the duty of care as fines would not be enough of a sanction.
The Government is expected to draft a “tight” duty of care bill early next year that will lay down the sanctions and investigative powers of the regulator.