online harms
Featured Article
Who’s liable for AI-generated lies?
Who will be liable for harmful speech generated by large language models? As advanced AIs such as OpenAI’s GPT-3 are being cheered for impressive breakthroughs in natural language processing and generation — and all sorts of (productive) applications for the tech are envisaged from slicker copywriting to more capable customer service chatbots — the risks…
Social media giants are failing women, finds Ofcom
Ofcom, the U.K.’s soon-to-be social media harms watchdog under incoming online safety legislation, has warned tech platforms that they are failing to take women’s safety seriously. Publishing new research (PDF)…
In a fresh addition to incoming U.K. legislation that will set sweeping internet content rules for platforms, the government has revived a long-standing ambition to put porn websites behind age…
UK lawmakers push for Online Safety Bill to have a tighter focus on illegal content
A U.K. parliamentary committee that’s spent almost half a year scrutinizing the government’s populist yet controversial plan to regulate internet services by applying a child safety-focused framing to content moderation…
Facebook whistleblower, Frances Haugen, raises trust and security questions over its e2e encryption
Frances Haugen, one of (now) multiple Facebook whistleblowers who have come forward in recent years with damning testimony related to product safety, gave testimony in front of the UK parliament…
UK now expects compliance with children’s privacy design code
In the U.K., a 12-month grace period for compliance with a design code aimed at protecting children online expires today — meaning app makers offering digital services in the market…
Google tightens UK policy on financial ads after watchdog pressure over scams
The U.K.’s more expansive, post-Brexit role in digital regulation continues to be felt today via a policy change by Google, which has announced that it will, in the near future,…
The U.K. government has published its long-trailed (child) “safety-focused” plan to regulate online content and speech. The Online Safety Bill has been in the works for years — during which…
UK’s Digital Markets Unit starts work on pro-competition reforms
A new UK public body that will be tasked with helping regulate the most powerful companies in the digital sector to ensure competition thrives online and consumers of digital services…
TikTok says it removed 104M videos in H1 2020, proposes harmful content coalition with other social apps
As the future of ByteDance’s TikTok ownership continues to get hammered out between tech and retail leviathans, investors and government officials, the video app today published its latest transparency report.…
UK gov’t asleep at the wheel on Russia cyber ops threat, report warns
The UK lacks a comprehensive and cohesive high level strategy to respond to the cyber threat posed by Russia and other hostile states using online disinformation and influence ops to…
Featured Article
How will EC plans to reboot rules for digital services impact startups?
There’s a chance for broader perspectives on platform power to shape the next decades online, and much more besides.
The UK government has taken the next step in its grand policymaking challenge to tame the worst excesses of social media by regulating a broad range of online harms. As…
UK watchdog sets out ‘age appropriate’ design code for online services to keep kids’ privacy safe
The UK’s data protection watchdog has today published a set of design standards for internet services which are intended to help protect the privacy and safety of children online. The…
Facebook and eBay pledge to do more to tackle trade in fake reviews after pressure from UK regulator
Facebook and eBay have made commitments to do more to stop fake reviews being sold on their platforms after coming under pressure from a UK markets regulator — even as…
UK’s competition regulator asks for views on breaking up Google
The U.K.’s competition regulator has raised concerns about the market power of digital ad platform giants Google and Facebook in an interim report published today, opening up a consultation on…
UK quietly ditches porn age checks in favor of wider online harms rules
A controversial UK government scheme to introduce mandatary age checks for accessing online pornography has been dropped — for now. Introduction of the measure, which was intended to protect children…
Europe’s top court sets new line on policing illegal speech online
Europe’s top court has set a new line for the policing of illegal speech online. The ruling has implications for how speech is regulated on online platforms — and is…
Facebook’s messaging app for under 13s, Messenger Kids — which launched two years ago pledging a “private” chat space for kids to talk with contacts specifically approved by their parents…
Adopting a ratings system for social media like the ones used for film and TV won’t work
Internet platforms like Google, Facebook and Twitter are under incredible pressure to reduce the proliferation of illegal and abhorrent content on their services.
UK age checks for online porn delayed after bureaucratic cock-up
The UK government has delayed the introduction of mandatory age verification for accessing online pornography — blaming an administrative cock-up. The controversial scheme had been due to launch on July…
UK Internet attitudes study finds public support for social media regulation
UK telecoms regulator Ofcom has published a new joint report and stat-fest on Internet attitudes and usage with the national data protection watchdog, the ICO — a quantitative study to…
Social media firms agree to work with UK charities to set online harm boundaries
Social media giants, including Facebook-owned Instagram, have agreed to financially contribute to UK charities to fund them making recommendations that the government hopes will speed up decisions about removing content…
