Executives of social media companies such as Facebook (Meta Platfrom Inc) could be sentenced to 2 years in prison in the United Kingdom (UK) if found giving inaccurate information to official regulatory inquiries.
According to Nadine Dorries, Secretary of State for Digital, Media, Culture, and Sport, the new legislation that has been submitted to the British Parliament allows senior managers (CEOs) of technology companies to be prosecuted as-
criminals if found to have destroyed evidence, failed to attend or provided false information in interviews with Ofcom and obstructed the work of regulators ”.
For the record, Britain has tightened laws involving social media to reduce online harassment and child sexual abuse.
The new legislation also states that technology companies are subject to prosecution within 2 months after the law is passed, instead of 2 years as previously planned.
According to Dorries, tech giants often get away with wrongs committed including abuse and criminal behavior on their platforms, now they have to take responsibility.
A statement from the government said the new legislation would provide clearer guidance on 'communications' that were seen as norm -compliant but dangerous, such as sexual harassment or the promotion of eating disorders on social media platforms.
According to the statement, the new legislation is expected to remove any intensity or pressure for social media platforms to remove controversial content or comments and clarify the fine line between legitimate but dangerous things.
Going down the record, new changes to the legislation were welcomed by a parliamentary committee after reviewing the preliminary draft of the law that had been submitted in May 2021.
The draft proposes a specific framework to regulate the way social media companies and content -based platforms, respond to various types of problematic content covering the Code of Conduct that will be overseen by Ofcom regulators.
However, the law has raised concerns from the Institute of Economic Affairs on the free market.
Clearly Matthew Lesh, head of public policy of the IEA, such actions seem to restrict the right to freedom of expression and could cause psychological problems.
