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By Sam Schechner and Parmy Olson 

The U.K. government plans to create a 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, 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 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, in remarks accompanying the proposal rollout. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal on Monday, he said he hoped the move would be "a model that other countries, including the U.S., will want to look at very carefully."

He said the new regulator could impose sanctions within the scope of European fines already being levied against companies that breach the bloc's new privacy rules. Such fines can run into the billions of dollars, though so far they have been much smaller. Mr. Wright said the government was also looking at holding individual company directors liable, as well as the possibility of blocking internet service providers.

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 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."

Claire Lilley, a public policy manager at Google said the company looks "forward to looking at the detail of these suggestions and working in partnership to ensure a free, open and safer internet."

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

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 08, 2019 05:44 ET (09:44 GMT)

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