This week, the UK government announced a new law which puts a new level of responsibility on technology companies.

Detailed here in a government position paper, it shows that companies who host content online, for example social media platforms, operating in the UK will be legally responsible for unlawful content and material on their platforms, which is deemed damaging to individuals or the country itself. Its ‘code of practice’ will include measures to minimise the spread “of misleading and harmful disinformation”.

The new regulation has been set, the UK government says, in an attempt to make the internet safe – specifically for children or vulnerable individuals. The government announced an independent regulator would be created to enforce the new law. This focuses on removing negative content that, for example, incites violence, constitutes cyber-bullying, or relates to terrorism. Child abuse will face stricter penalties.

The government announced that the new regulator would be empowered to block access to websites or apps that break the rules. It also said that a “range of options” were being considered for subjecting individual senior managers to civil fines and criminal liability for the infringing content.

Companies will be required to take more direct action to prevent or remove negative content. They will also be required to have an effective complaints function, where users receive quick and clear responses. Social media firms specifically will need to publish annual reports on the amount of harmful content on their platforms and an explanation of their response and actions.

In the UK recently, calls for stricter regulation have increased. This may be linked to the
suicide of a British teenager where social media was implicated as a cause, and the live streaming of a mass killing in New Zealand which social media struggled to stop broadcasting.

Europe generally has taken a much more robust approach than the United States, confronting large companies over such issues as data protection and privacy. Social media companies have responded in agreement and stating their efforts against negative and harmful content.

It is certainly a positive that more action and attention is being focused on the safety of the internet and to reduce disturbing online content. However, it can be argued that this new onus on self policing will not be the most effective method. Individuals in the West have the freedom to express their views online. If companies are to use their own imperfect methods to restrict this, this raises the question as to where their service begins and ends as well as what control they do have and should have over freedom of speech.