Social media platforms will face significant fines if they fail to protect users from criminal content online under new powers that have come into effect today.
In December, Ofcompublished the first edition of its codes of practice and guidance on tackling illegal harms, which include terror, hate, fraud, child sexual abuse and assisting or encouraging suicide. The regulations form part of the UK’s Online Safety Act, which wasfinally signed into law last year.
Social media firms must now carry out ‘illegal harms risk assessments’ to ascertain how likely it is that users could encounter illegal content on their service, or, in the case of ‘user-to-user’ services, how they could be used to commit or facilitate certain criminal offences.
Ofcom said it would begin assessing platforms’ compliance with the new rules in the coming months before launching targeted enforcement action. The regulator said that file-sharing and file-storage services are particularly susceptible to being used for the sharing of images of child sexual abuse and urged them to implement automated moderation technology.
Those platforms that do not comply could face fines of up to 10% of turnover or £18m, whichever is greater. In the most serious cases, courts could implement a ban on certain sites altogether.
Suzanne Cater, enforcement director at Ofcom, said: “Platforms must now act quickly to come into compliance with their legal duties, and our codes are designed to help them do that. But, make no mistake, any provider who fails to introduce the necessary protections can expect to face the full force of our enforcement action.”
Last year, Ofcom also warned that it planned to start penalising online platforms that fail to tackle the rising number of illegal deepfakes. The regulator commissioned research that showed that two in five people had seenat least one deepfake in the last six months that included depictions of sexual content, politicians and scam adverts.
Derek Ray-Hill, interim CEO at the Internet Watch Foundation, said: “The Online Safety Act has the potential to be transformational in protecting children from online exploitation. Now is the time for online platforms to join the fight and make sure they are doing everything they can to stop the spread of this dangerous and devastating material.”