UK introduces long-awaited online safety bill

This page was translated using AI and machine learning.

(Pocket-lint) – The UK government is due to present the much-discussed and long-awaited Online Safety Bill to Parliament today and, if approved, will finally introduce far-reaching legislation to tackle cyberbullying, self-harm, fake news and other areas of the internet. worry.

It will also introduce new measures to prevent children from accessing online pornography, including mandatory age verification systems.

Social networks, such as Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, and Twitter, will face greater scrutiny, with fines and even blocked access in the UK if they fail to remove harmful content on request. Leaders could even be jailed for non-compliance with the new guidelines.

Ofcom will take regulatory control of the bill, with the power to request information from tech companies and question bosses.

“Tech companies have not been held accountable when harm, abuse and criminal behavior has been unleashed on their platforms,” ​​Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries said (as reported by the BBC).

Not all of the bill’s proposals are imposed on businesses, social media users will also have the “right to appeal” for posts they believe are unnecessarily removed. Users will also be able to complain to an ombudsman (Ofcom) of online platforms.

The bill will also make “cyber-blinking” illegal, whereby nude images are sent to a user without their consent.

Written by Rik Henderson.