The British government announced the new regulation for social media companies. It will seek to penalize them if they fail to protect users from terrorism, violence and obscene content.
According to The Times on Sunday, the announce of the British social media new regulation will come next month. It will be applied after Brexit, which is scheduled for Jan. 31.
Earlier last summer the government had worked on ways to regulate social media and then had to collect opinions.
In a Conservative manifesto ahead of the general elections held this month, current Prime Minister Boris Johnson also vowed to “pursue legislation to make Britain the safest country online,” and to “protect children and vulnerable people from online abuse and harmful content, and to prevent terrorists from hiding safely online.”
The new British regulations target global social media companies such as Facebook and Google.
The government plans to impose legal precautions on social media companies through offcom, a broadcasting and communications regulator.
According to the report, social media companies should protect users from exposure to various contents. Including terrorism or child abuse, illegal drug and arms sales, cyber bullies, self-inflicted, false information, violence and pornography.
If the company violates the plan, it plans to impose fines in proportion to its annual sales.
Separately, it will also introduce measures to give legal responsibility to management to punish them if they violate their obligations.
U.S. IT giants such as Facebook should have a person in charge in the U.K., and should be held accountable if there is a violation of regulations.
However experts expect for some exclusion of a measure requiring ISPs to block access to certain Web sites or applications in the U.K. through the process of gathering opinions.
Nevertheless some raised concerns that it could infringe on freedom of expression and freedom of speech.
The conservative government, however, said in its campaign pledge that it will “protect freedom of expression and especially recognize and protect the valuable role of freedom of speech.”
