UK Politicians Want to Penalize Social Networks for Not Preventing the Spread of Illegal Material Online

Technology and politics don’t always go hand in hand. Just ask Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, both of whom have fallen foul of social media and emails. For us ordinary mortals, social networks are a fun way to waste some time, but for the social networks themselves, disseminating content into every home and business is a profitable venture.

Social networks do a lot of good. They help spread information about bad things happening in far-flung places across the globe and they are invaluable for San Francisco SEO agencies trying to market niche businesses in a saturated online marketplace. But, whilst social media is undoubtedly a power for good, it can also be a tool for evil and whilst social networks such as Facebook and Twitter continue to sit on the fence over how to handle offensive and/or illegal content, politicians have lost patience.

Select Committee Report

A report published by a select committee of MPs in the UK has concluded that Google, Facebook, and Twitter don’t do enough to stop the spread of hate speech, illegal images, and extremism. MPs say social networks and search engines are aware of illegal material but choose to turn a blind eye. The committee has suggested that tech giants such as Facebook and Google should be sanctioned for not curbing the spread of such material online.

A Sliding Scale of Sanctions

MPs have proposed a sliding scale of sanctions, based on how long it takes for tech giants to remove illegal material. The longer they take to remove extremist videos, child pornography, and other illegal content, the more it will cost them in fines. The report also suggests that tech firms pay for investigative work and monitoring systems online.

At the moment, social networks rely on users to flag up material deemed to be illegal or offensive in some way. However, MPs disagree with this strategy. They say social networks are effectively passing the buck on to their users instead of taking responsibility for policing their own corner of the internet.

The Tech is Already in Place

MPs have drawn a comparison between policing the internet for illegal material and the fight against illegal copyright infringement. There are effective tools in place to deal with people who post copyright protected material such as video and music and copyright holders have no problem identifying users who download illegal movies and songs via their IP address.

Despite this, social networks seem to have a real problem implanting safeguarding protocols on their networks. This infuriates MPs, who believe the tech giants have a duty of care to take responsibility for identifying and removing heinous material.

The UK is not alone in considering hefty fines to bring the social networks to heel. Germany is considering a law that fines social media companies for failing to remove illegal material and the EU is also considering implementing legislation to deal with the problem. In future, companies could face fines of up to 50 million Euros if they fail to tackle the problem.