Explained: The UK online safety bill that seeks to regulate Big Tech

What are the key proposals of the bill?

The bill proposes that executives of social media platforms whose companies fail to cooperate with the Ofcom’s information requests can now face prosecution or jail time within two months of the bill becoming law, instead of two years as it was previously drafted. These executives could be held criminally liable for destroying evidence, failing to attend or providing false information in interviews with Ofcom, and for obstructing the regulator when it enters company offices. Ofcom will also have the power to fine companies failing to comply with the laws up to 10 per cent of their annual global turnover, force them to improve their practices and block non-compliant sites.

Encrypted private messaging services will have to use “accredited technology” to identify child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA) content, and swiftly take down that content. To use this power, Ofcom must be certain that no other measures would be similarly effective and there is evidence of a widespread problem on a service.

Major service providers will also need to make clear in their terms of service what legal content is acceptable on their sites, and provide user-friendly ways to complain when things go wrong. The categories of content that companies’ terms of service will need to address will be set out in secondary legislation and approved by Parliament. For the first time, users will have the right to appeal if they feel their post has been taken down unfairly.

Are there any exceptions?

The proposed law will put requirements on social media firms to protect journalism and democratic political debate on their platforms. News content will be completely exempt from any regulation under the Bill. Furthermore, social media platforms will only be required to tackle ‘legal but harmful’ content, such as exposure to self-harm, harassment and eating disorders, set by the government and approved by Parliament. Previously they would have had to consider whether additional content on their sites met the definition of legal but harmful material.

Are there any concerns around the proposed law?

Critics of the bill have raised concerns over threat to freedom of speech and dilution of security offered by encrypted platforms. They have also flagged the bill’s ability to allow unchecked political speech to flourish on social media platforms, while cautioning handing significant amount of power to the Ofcom and the UK’s secretaries of state.

“The bill provides extraordinary discretion to the Secretary of State and Ofcom to design ‘codes of conduct’ that will define ‘legal but harmful’ content. They will also have the power to impose additional requirements such as age verification and undermine end-to-end encryption. The regulator will also have significant leeway about what types of content and which platforms to target,” said the UK-based think tank Institute of Economic Affairs.

The digital rights group, Open Rights Group, said the bill could encourage “state sanctioned censorship of legal content”. “The Bill still contains powers for Ministers to decide what legal content platforms must try to remove. Parliamentary rubber stamps for Ministerial say-so’s will still compromise the independence of the regulator. It would mean state sanctioned censorship of legal content,” said the group.

Does the UK bill have any similarities with the Indian laws?

Some of the proposals of the UK’s Online Safety Bill mirror recent legislation in India around the regulation of social media intermediaries. Under the new IT Rules amendments, which kicked in last year, messaging services with more than 5 million users in India like WhatsApp and Signal need to enable the identification of the first originator of a particular message. India’s IT Rules also require companies like Meta, Twitter, WhatsApp etc. to appoint a chief compliance officer to ensure that their platforms are compliant with the law. However, the chief compliance officer can be held liable in “any proceedings” related to third-party content on the platform.

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