UK Online Safety Bill to become law

[Dos_Box]

This little snippet came across my newsfeed this morning I knew it was 'in progress' but seems it is now ready to become law - https://www.gov.uk/government/news/britain-makes-internet-safer-as-online-safety-bill-finished-and-ready-to-become-law

 

You can find out more and download the bill here - https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3137 I'll have to have a good look to see what they may have sneaked in there.

[6Foot2]

Link: Britain issues first online safety fine to US website 4chan | Reuters

 

Quote

Britain said on Monday it had issued U.S. internet forum site 4chan with a 20,000 pound ($26,644) fine for failing to provide information about the risk of illegal content on its service, marking the first penalty under the new online safety regime.

Media regulator Ofcom said 4chan had not responded to its request for a copy of its illegal harms risk assessment nor a second request relating to its qualifying worldwide.

 

Ofcom said it would take action against any service which "flagrantly fails to engage with Ofcom and their duties under the Online Safety Act" and they should expect to face penalties.

 

The act, which is designed to protect children and vulnerable users from illegal content online, has caused tension between U.S. tech companies and Britain.

 

Critics of the law have said it threatens free speech and targets U.S. companies.

 

Technology minister Liz Kendall said the government "fully backed" Ofcom in taking action.

 

"This fine is a clear warning to those who fail to remove illegal content or protect children from harmful material," she said....

 

If I were to make a bet as to which website would be first to be fined, I would probably have put my money on 4chan.

[sigma]

2 hours ago, 6Foot2 said:

Link: Britain issues first online safety fine to US website 4chan | Reuters

 

 

If I were to make a bet as to which website would be first to be fined, I would probably have put my money on 4chan.

If I were to make a bet as to which website would be first to ignore any fine from Ofcom, it would likely be 4chan, given that Ofcom like most other UK regulators never go after bigger fish.

 

This from just a few days ago.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c708v7qkeg1o

 

TikTok's algorithm recommends pornography and highly sexualised content to children's accounts, according to a new report by a human rights campaign group.

Researchers created fake child accounts and activated safety settings but still received sexually explicit search suggestions.

The suggested search terms led to sexualised material including explicit videos of penetrative sex.

The platform says it is committed to safe and age-appropriate experiences and took immediate action once it knew of the problem.

In late July and early August this year, researchers from campaign group Global Witness set up four accounts on TikTok pretending to be 13-year-olds.

They used false dates of birth and were not asked to provide any other information to confirm their identities.