Jail threat aimed at executives who ‘have consented or connived in ignoring enforceable requirements, risking serious harm to children’
Social media bosses who repeatedly fail to remove harmful content such as suicide and self-harm videos face up to two years’ in jail under plans announced by ministers on Tuesday.
Michelle Donelan, the Technology and Science Secretary, announced the changes to the online safety bill which will make senior managers at tech firms criminally liable for persistent breaches of their duty of care to protect children from harmful material.
The measures are designed as a last-resort penalty if company bosses continue to ignore requests by the regulator, Ofcom, to correct flaws in their technology which cause serious harm to children.
The Government amendment to the bill, which begins its committee stage in the Lords on Wednesday, comes on top of Ofcom’s powers to fine the tech giants up to 10 per cent of their global turnover for breaches. The regulator can also block the firms’ access to UK users.
The changes are modelled on Irish legislation which made individual bosses liable for complying with a notice by the country’s new online regulator and face jail if they continued to contravene their duties.
The tougher approach follows a rebellion by more than 50 Tory MPs calling for bosses to face jail. They were led by Tory MPs Miriam Cates and Sir Bill Cash, backed by former Home Secretary Priti Patel and former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith.
Ministers have insisted the jail threat will not affect social media executives who have acted in good faith to comply with the regulator in a proportionate way, but is designed for bosses who “have consented or connived in ignoring enforceable requirements, risking serious harm to children”.
Other Government amendments will force firms to publish assessments of the risk to children on their site from illegal content and harmful material. It had previously been proposed these would only have to be shared with Ofcom.
Controlling and coercive behaviour will be treated as a “priority” offence, which means companies will have to proactively search for it on their platforms and prevent it, rather than waiting for someone to flag it to them.
Companies will be legally required to take down adverts promoting people smugglers’ services and to counter disinformation by a foreign state that could destabilise the UK.
The victims, domestic abuse and children’s commissioners will become statutory consultees, which means Ofcom will have to consult them and consider their views when implementing regulations.
Technology companies have renewed their attack on proposed laws that would force them to identify child sexual abuse in encrypted messages.
The bosses of WhatsApp and its rival Signal have co-signed an open letter warning that the plans, contained in the Online Safety Bill, will open the door to “indiscriminate surveillance”.
The bill would give the regulator, Ofcom, the power to order companies to use technology to identify illegal material on encrypted services.
The technology has not been stipulated, however, and the companies argue that there is no way to break encryption while retaining privacy.