[Science] UK wants to curb fake news and cyberbullying with new internet laws – AI

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[Science] UK wants to curb fake news and cyberbullying with new internet laws – AI


The UK government plans to introduce new internet safety lawsTowfiqu Photography/Getty By New Scientist Staff and Press AssociationThe UK government plans to introduce internet safety laws in a bid to make being online safer. A white paper on online harms, published by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and the Home Office, proposes strict new rules that will require firms to take responsibility for their users and their safety, as well as the content that appears on their services. It suggests punishing social media companies with large fines or blocking them from being accessed. Internet companies which break these rules could even see senior management held personally liable for the failings. A newly introduced duty of care will require firms to take more responsibility for the safety of users and more actively tackle the harm caused by content or activity on their platforms. An independent regulator will have the power to issue “substantial fines, block access to sites and potentially impose liability on individual members of senior management”. Advertisement Read more: Consider your child’s future before you share that ‘hilarious’ image However, the proposals have prompted warnings that oversight should not amount to state censorship. The proposed measures are part of a government pledge to make the UK one of the safest places in the world to be online, and comes in response to concerns over the growth of violent content, disinformation and the exposure of children to cyberbullying and other inappropriate material online. A number of charities and campaigners have called for greater regulation to be introduced, while several reports from members of parliament and other groups published this year have also supported the calls for a duty of care to be implemented. Transparency reports “The internet can be brilliant at connecting people across the world, but for too long these companies have not done enough to protect users, especially children and young people, from harmful content,” said prime minister Theresa May in a statement. “Online companies must start taking responsibility for their platforms, and help restore public trust in this technology.” The proposed new laws will apply to any company that allows users to share or discover user-generated content or interact with each other online, applicable to companies of all sizes from social media platforms to file-hosting sites, forum, messaging services and search engines. It also calls for powers to be given to a regulator to force internet firms to publish annual transparency reports on the harmful content on their platforms and how they are addressing it. Companies including Facebook and Twitter already publish reports of this nature. Read more: The truth about the suspected link between social media and self-harm “These things are always justified as being for good, kind and worthy objectives, but ultimately it’s giving power to a state regulator to decide what can and cannot be shown on the internet,” said Victoria Hewson, of the Institute for Economic Affairs think tank, to the BBC. “Maybe the authorities should be trying to stop these things at source.” A 12-week consultation will now take place before ministers publish draft legislation. More on these topics: internet law

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