By Sam Schechner and Parmy Olson
The U.K. government plans to create a new regulatory body to
force the removal of harmful content from the internet, one of the
most far-reaching legislative proposals from a host of countries
trying to put a tighter leash on global technology companies.
The U.K. proposal, disclosed in a policy paper published early
Monday local time, aims to create a new legal obligation for
companies including Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc.'s Google to
take "reasonable and proportionate" action on a wide gamut of
illegal or potentially harmful content published on their
platforms, ranging from terrorist propaganda to cyberbullying and
disinformation.
The government said the new regulator would be armed with powers
to enforce compliance, including potentially the power to issue
civil fines for demonstrated failures in some areas. It said that
issue would be refined in coming months through consultations on an
eventual law.
The U.K.'s proposal comes amid renewed momentum from governments
-- from Australia and New Zealand to the European Union -- to force
companies to take more responsibility for the content they
disseminate, from pirated music to extremist manifestos. Those
calls have grown since allegations that Russia abused social-media
tools to inject polarizing disinformation into the 2016 U.S.
presidential election -- and were amplified after last month's
terrorist attack in Christchurch, New Zealand, which the attacker
broadcast live over Facebook.
The new proposals and laws represent a shift from an older
model, where companies have often remained protected by
generation-old rules that shield them from liability for content
their users disseminate. Companies generally have signed on to
voluntary measures to curb the spread of illicit content, but
increasingly face legal obligations, too.
Germany, for instance, last year implemented a law that
threatens up to EUR50 million ($56 million) in fines for companies
that systematically fail to remove hate speech.
"The era of self-regulation for online companies is over," said
Jeremy Wright, the U.K.'s digital secretary. "Voluntary actions
from industry to tackle online harms have not been applied
consistently or gone far enough."
Big tech companies say they already work hard to remove illicit
and harmful content, , and increasingly use automated
artificial-intelligence tools to do so. While tech executives
increasingly say they also embrace regulation, TechUK, a lobby
group for firms including Facebook, Google, Amazon.com Inc. and
Apple Inc., said that the U.K. proposal would need to become more
specific to avoid subjecting companies to uncertainty. "Not all of
the legitimate concerns about online harms can be addressed through
regulation," the group said.
Facebook said that it supports new internet regulations, and
plans to work with the U.K. government and parliament to help shape
the rules. But the company also raised what has often been a tense
issue for tech companies facing content restrictions: how to
balance the removal of potentially harmful postings with Silicon
Valley's more general embrace of free speech and free
enterprise.
"New rules for the internet should protect society from harm
while also supporting innovation, the digital economy and freedom
of speech," said Rebecca Stimson, Facebook's head of U.K. public
policy. "These are complex issues to get right."
How to police internet content is one of several topics in a
broader debate over how governments should exercise control over
big technology companies whose products are woven deeply into
millions of businesses and billions of individuals' daily
lives.
In recent months, European nations have pressured the U.S. to
participate in a new round of international talks about how to tax
digital profits. Both the European Union and U.K. have commissioned
reports that suggest potential tweaks to some antitrust enforcement
against big tech firms. The EU also passed a new copyright
directive and a regulation mandating more transparency in how big
tech platforms treat the businesses that rely on them.
On Monday, the EU plans to release a report it commissioned
asking for guidelines for the ethical deployment of
artificial-intelligence tools in the bloc.
Some lobbyists say that adding regulations in Europe or the U.S.
could risk slowing economic growth and putting Western companies at
a disadvantage in a technological race with China. "Tech is
becoming a highly regulated industry, especially in Europe," said
Christian Borggreen, vice president for Europe at U.S.-based
Computer & Communications Industry Association. "It will be
interesting to see how this will impact Europe's ability to create
innovative companies and be a leader for the future."
Removing terrorist content has been a particular focus of many
governments. Last week, security officials from the Group of Seven
nations met with tech companies including Google and Facebook, to
discuss their cooperation with the removal of terrorist content,
and called on the companies to accelerate their work.
The EU is currently debating a proposed law that would threaten
fines of up to 4% of annual world-wide revenue for companies that
don't comply with a regime that mandates the removal of all
terrorist material within an hour of being posted.
For the new U.K. regulator, focusing on the removal of extremist
content could be challenging, however, said Clark Hogan-Taylor, a
manager at counter-extremism software startup Moonshot CVE, which
works with Google. The U.K.'s proposal includes disclosure
requirements for companies, but may prove difficult to police for
accuracy, he said.
"In order for them to fine Facebook for not removing X number of
videos, someone has to know they haven't removed X number of
videos," Mr. Hogan-Taylor said. "How would they measure that?"
Write to Sam Schechner at sam.schechner@wsj.com and Parmy Olson
at parmy.olson@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 07, 2019 19:15 ET (23:15 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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