Britain has drafted a bill that would see social media companies fined up to 10 percent of turnover if they failed to stamp out online abuse such as racist and hate crimes from their platform.
The bill will place a duty of care on social media firms and websites to ensure they take swift action to remove illegal content, such as hate crimes, harassment and threats directed at individuals, including abuse which falls below the criminal threshold.
According to Home Secretary Priti Patel, the Online Safety Bill seeks to strengthen the right to freedom of expression and ensure democratic political debate and journalistic content is protected.
Technology firms have been accused of doing far too little to address online abuse, with football clubs and other sporting authorities boycotting the world’s biggest social media platforms last month to highlight the growing problem.
