The UK Could Finally Make Social Media a Safer Place
Its Online Safety Bill will force Instagram, Snap and others to show how damaging their algorithms can be to kids — if it ever gets through Parliament.
New rules coming?
Source: Bloomberg
Britain’s Online Safety Bill, one of the most important new laws aiming to force checks and balances on the social media industry, was finally debated in Parliament on Monday. If the bill doesn’t pass by April 2023, it could be dropped entirely. Britain’s legislators shouldn’t let that happen.
The law, first proposed in 2019, cleverly threads the needle between guarding free speech and protecting internet users from harmful content. It is not perfect, but it takes a relatively balanced approach that treats social media platforms like real-world environments that need to follow health and safety rules. In the same way that a grocery store is culpable for someone slipping on a wet floor on their premises, so too should Facebook or Instagram have a duty of care to prevent and address harassment or misinformation.