The United Kingdom is stricter regarding information disclosed on technology platforms in its territory. The British objective is for illegal content to be combated from 2025. Officially implemented this Monday, 16, the new online security law is demanding greater commitment from companies like Meta, Tik Tok is Google.
With this measure, the British hope to reduce and penalize approaches to terrorism, hate speech, general fraud and child sexual abuse. This regulation is part of the Online Safety Act, which imposes “duties of care” on technology platforms, ensuring that they all remove content considered illegal under British law.
Adaptation must be done by March
The Online Safety Act was signed into law in October 2023. Nonetheless, the regulation came into force only from this Monday. The 1st Code of Practice provided for legislation was published by Ofcom, UK media and telecommunications regulatory agency.
In this publication, the body brought details of how companies should deal with harmful content circulating on networks. From now on, companies will have up to 16 March of 2025 to complete risk assessments and make appropriate adaptations to combat illegalities.
Fines and suspension of services
After this period has passed, all platforms must qualify their content moderations and implement security tests, in addition to facilitating access to your user reports. Failure to comply with these new measures involves strict punishments.
Ofcom may impose fines of up to 10% under the company's annual revenue and, yet, may impose prison sentences on managers in case of specific violations. In extreme situations, the company may have its services and access blocked throughout the United Kingdom.
These standards are included in the first part of codes of practice proposed by the regulatory agency. Nonetheless, new online security measures are already planned, this time including the use of artificial intelligence to address the damage caused by illegal information.
