A new white paper from U.K. Home Office and Department of Culture, Media, and Sport aims to setup a regulation body that enforces and fines social media and search engine services that don’t do enough to prevent “harmful” content from being viewed by youth.
CNET is reporting that the U.K., government wants websites to curtail harmful content. More specifically, they want social media websites such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Google to filter ore move:
- Inciting violence and spreading violent content (including terrorist content)
- Encouraging self-harm or suicide
- The spread of disinformation and fake news
- Cyber bullying
- Children accessing inappropriate material
- Child exploitation and abuse content
Prime Minister Theresa May issued a press statement explaining why the new U.K., regulation was needed, saying…
“For too long these companies have not done enough to protect users, especially children and young people, from harmful content. We have listened to campaigners and parents, and are putting a legal duty of care on internet companies to keep people safe.”
The censorship will apply to more than just social media sites, it will also extend to search engines as well. If the sites or engines opt not to comply, they will be fined and blocked by the ISPs. Left-leaning people on Twitter are obviously in favor for it, because most of them can’t see the forest for the trees, so they instantly believe that censorship is the right way to go, as indicated by a poll hosted by Martin Lewis from Money Saving Expert.
Today’s Twitter Poll: Do u support the govt’s proposal today, to set up a formal UK regulator of social media & the internet; to govern online harms (inc child sex abuse, hate crimes, harassment, sale of illegal goods). Critics say ending self-regulation is worrying censorship.
— Martin Lewis (@MartinSLewis) April 8, 2019
What’s odd is that even though they’re moving to fining and sanctioning services that don’t comply with their new regulation, they don’t actually have a regulatory body setup for this new oversight, and CNET is reporting that they haven’t appointed a regulator over this initiative yet, or haven’t decided on whether or not to create a new regulator.
Regardless of the lack of structure surrounding the new regulation, the U.K’s Digital Secretary, Jeremy Wright, stated…
“The era of self-regulation for online companies is over. Voluntary actions from industry to tackle online harms have not been applied consistently or gone far enough.”
This comes after Facebook, Microsoft, and other tech giants have also called for a central international body of censorship to remove content from the internet.
Twitter basically issued a statement saying they would continue to work to keep people safe, opted not to acknowledge the U.K’s new regulation to safekeep the kids from “harmful” content. Some others mentioned that the overall call for regulation of content was still left “too vague”, and that it could be exploited.
All of this comes amid the Christchurch, New Zealand shooting, where the shooter livestreamed his attack on Facebook. He also published a manifesto (which has been deemed illegal in New Zealand) that basically outlined a plan for accelerationism to incite governments and tech giants to do exactly what their doing now: enact widespread censorship and gun control.
The shooter’s ultimate goal was to create enough civil unrest and public discord that eventually it would result in a civil race war. Right now, it appears as if government bodies and tech giants also want the same thing, since they’re doing exactly what he wanted.
(Thanks for the news tip Ebicentre)