UK Online Safety Bill Introduces a New Online Regimen

The Online Safety Bill (“the Bill”) was introduced to the UK parliament in May 2019 and with the latest update, published on March 27, 2023, aims to provide a safer internet for all users, particularly children. In the latest version of the Bill, there are regulations intended to ensure internet security for children, as well as obligations for internet service providers and search engine providers to enhance internet security. One of the main aims of the Bill is to create a safer environment on social media platforms for both children and adults.

One Step Back

The Bill envisages a safer space for all users. One of the striking points of these regulatory actions was the suicide of a teenager in the UK. In the investigation on the suicide of a fourteen-year-old girl, who ended her life in 2017, it was revealed that the "self-harm" and "suicide" content suggested to her on Instagram had a significant impact on her ending her life.[1]

In 2018, a year after this incident, the scandal emerged that the political consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica collected personal data from Facebook without the consent of users for the purpose of creating and targeting voter profiles.[2] It was believed that the data of up to 87 million people was improperly shared.

Scope of the Online Safety Bill

The Bill imposes legal requirements to search engine providers and internet service providers that allow users to encounter content created, uploaded or shared by other users. Companies in scope can either be categorised as category 1 services or category 2 services where category 1 services will include the largest platforms with the most users and will be subject to higher obligations. Therefore, the Bill can affect not only Big Tech companies but also many medium and small companies. In this regard messaging services, websites, platforms and online forums where users interact can be encompassed too.

In addition to UK service providers, the Bill applies to providers of regulated services based outside the UK where they fall within scope of the Bill, for example, because such services target the UK or they have a significant number of UK users.

The Requirements for the Companies to Comply

Companies within the scope of the Bill have many obligations, some of the more dire ones are listed below.

• Quickly removing and preventing the appearance of illegal content within the scope of the crimes specified as priority crimes in the Bill,

• Prevent children from accessing content that is not illegal but not age appropriate and harmful (such as pornographic content, online harassment, cyberbullying or online harassment, or content that promotes or glorifies suicide, self-harm or eating disorders),

• Implement age limits and age control measures,

• Ensure greater transparency of risks and hazards to children, including publishing risk assessments,

• Provide clear and accessible ways for parents and children to report problems online as they arise.

The obligation to remove legal but harmful content, which was previous version of the bill, was introduced. In the revised version of Bill, if the companies promise to prevent certain types of content in the terms of service of the platforms, the relevant regulation has been revised by making it obligatory to remove these contents.

When we look at the adult protections, category 1 services will be required to facilitate a “triple shield” method. Platforms have the obligation to remove all illegal content, remove content that is banned by their own terms and conditions and give the power to adult internet users with tools so that they can tailor the type of content they see and the type that they can avoid. This way the potentially harmful content can be avoided if they do not want to see it on their feeds. Children will be automatically prevented from seeing this content without a mechanism to change any settings.

New Offenses Under the Bill

New criminal offences have been introduced under the Bill. If the Bill becomes law, the sharing of pornographic deep fake images and cyberflashing - which means sending obscene photos to people via airdrop - will be considered a crime. In addition false communications offence, aimed at protecting individuals from any communications where the sender intended to cause harm by sending something knowingly false similar to libel/slander and assisting or encouraging self-harm online are on the Bill.

The Consequence of Non-Compliance for Companies

Companies that fail to meet obligations could face fines of up to £18m or 10% of global annual turnover, whichever is higher. At the same time, business interruption measures may be taken against them, including the prevention of inappropriate services.

The Bill, which does not impose sanctions only on companies, imposes criminal sanctions against senior executives who do not comply with the Office of Communications (“Ofcom”) information requests or deliberately destroy or hide information. In addition, the government has promised to introduce an amendment to the Bill which will provide for jail terms of up to two years for executives whose companies do not comply with child protection rules.

Conclusion

The Online Safety Bill was published by the UK in 2019 as the world's first Online Safety Bill. Since the Bill, which is still not enacted, is expected to become law this year, companies covered by the Bill may have to comply with the obligations. For this reason, companies that have titles such as internet service provider and search engine provider must move on with risk assessments, assess which category that they fall under, set up systems to monitor contents evaluate their existing services at this point and displaying a risk-based approach will prevent the companies from facing sanctions.

[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-63073489

[2] https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-64075067