UK Government's Action Tackles Online Harms

Published date21 February 2020
Subject MatterGovernment, Public Sector, Media, Telecoms, IT, Entertainment, IT and Internet, Government Contracts, Procurement & PPP, Social Media
Law FirmCooley LLP
AuthorMr Chris Coulter, Tom Epps, Laurence Harris and James Maton

The UK government recently published an interim update on its consultation on proposed legislation to tackle online harms. The legislation will impose a new duty of care on companies that facilitate the sharing of user-generated content to protect users from harmful online content and activity.

The update is low on policy detail but, using its own words, indicates the "direction of travel" in a number of key areas. A full report will be published in the spring.

The scope

The new rules will apply to businesses that provide services or use functionality on websites operated in the UK that facilitate the sharing of user-generated content or user interactions, through comments, forums or video sharing and the like. To be in scope for the proposed legislation, a business has to operate its own website (including mobile platforms) with the functionality to enable sharing of user-generated content or user interactions.

The duty

Online harms is the collective term given to an array of harmful content and activity. The focus is often on terrorism and child sexual abuse, but revenge porn, hate crime, harassment, promotion of self-harm, disinformation, trolling and the sale of illegal goods are all covered. We are told that the regulator will produce guidance detailing how each category of harm should best be addressed.

A clear division is made between illegal and legal content. Illegal content will need to be removed expeditiously and systems will need to be in place to minimise the risk of it appearing in the first instance. With regard to legal content, the UK government is concerned not to curb freedom of expression unduly. Accordingly, businesses will be required to state explicitly what content and behaviour they deem to be unacceptable on their sites and enforce their policies consistently and transparently.

The proposed legislation will provide that child users, in particular, are to be protected. Companies will be expected to use a range of tools including age-assurance and age-verification technologies to prevent children from accessing age-inappropriate content and to protect them from other...

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