Britain’s Conservative government has reportedly struck a deal with backbench Tory MPs over jail sentences in the online safety bill. The rebels wanted the bill to jail tech owners for two years for not complying with the law instead of fines. BBC News is now saying that a deal has been struck to push the rebels back.
The Online Safety Bill is currently going through the House of Commons, it is now almost at the end of the process. After that, it will go through several readings in the House of Lords before being given to the monarch to be signed into law by royal assent.
Under the new rules, websites that host user-generated content such as Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Facebook will have to take steps to prevent children from viewing harmful content. It can look at things like age verification measures. While these measures could harm people without ID or prevent people concerned about privacy from using services, the bill has broad support. Both the Conservative and Labor parties support the bill, as do child protection groups.
As the bill stands, companies that fail to implement the appropriate measures will face fines of up to 10 percent of their global revenue. The idea of holding managers of these companies personally liable was rejected after consultation before the bill was introduced as it would make the UK tech sector less attractive. Nevertheless, the bill appears to add personal liability and managers who violate the law could potentially face up to two years in prison, although it is unclear whether the agreement has happened so the jail term can be reduced. End
How this law will affect businesses is likely to affect revenues. People working at social media companies said the new rules would drive younger users off the platform and mean fewer people are seeing ads, which are the main source of revenue for social media sites. . This is a double whammy for social media firms as ad revenue is already low due to a weakening economy.
Source: BBC News
