Dorries tells tech chiefs they could face jail in online Bill

SENIOR tech executives such as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg will face jail if they fail to block harmful content from their platforms, the Culture Secretary has said.

Nadine Dorries said senior executives could end up behind bars if they did not comply with new duty of care laws to prevent illegal content such as suicide chatrooms and threats of violence from getting on to their sites.

The Government’s draft Online Harms Bill introduced “reserve” powers that ministers could enact in two years’ time to give Ofcom, the online harms watchdog, powers to jail specific executives for up to two years if they failed to remove illegal content under the proposed new duty of care regime.

Ministers are being urged by charities, including the NSPCC, and Labour to introduce criminal sanctions as soon as the Bill becomes law but ministers have yet to commit to such a move. Ministers are, however, expected to go ahead with plans for individual bosses to be criminally liable and face jail sentences if they fail to co-operate and share information with Ofcom.

Asked on Times Radio if senior executives such as Mr Zuckerberg, the Meta boss, could find themselves in prison if they did not comply, Ms Dorries replied: “Absolutely. What [these firms] need to do now is to remove those harmful algorithms. Stop directing people to suicide chat rooms, stop allowing pile-hate, stop allowing people trafficking, stop allowing threats of hate, violence and rape and remove it all now.”