Social media firms face big UK fines if they fail to stop sexist and racist content

Social media platforms that breach pledges to block sexist and racist content face the threat of substantial fines under government changes to the online safety bill announced on Monday.

Under the new approach, social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter must also give users the option of avoiding content that is harmful but does not constitute a criminal offence. This could include racism, misogyny or the glorification of eating disorders.

Under another adjustment to the bill, big tech companies must offer people a way of avoiding harmful content on their platform, even if it is legal, through methods that could include content moderation or warning screens. Examples of such material include those that are abusive, or incite hatred on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, disability, sex, gender reassignment or sexual orientation.

However, firms will not be able to take down content or ban a user unless the circumstances for doing so are clearly set out in the terms of service. Users will also have to be offered a right of appeal to protect against arbitrary content removal or account bans.

The revival of the much-delayed attempt to rein in tech firms comes as Meta was fined ¤265m on Monday for a breach of data protection law after the personal details of more than 500 million people were published online.

Changes to the bill have been made in the face of warnings from Conservative MPs and some campaign groups that a prior version would encourage tech firms to be overcensorious and stifle freedom of speech.

Other changes to the bill include criminalising encouragement of committing self-harm, a change that was introduced after the inquest into the death of 14-year-old Molly Russell, who died after viewing extensive amounts of harmful material on Instagram and Pinterest in 2017. Under the bill, which applies to all firms that produce user-generated content, as well as search engines, tech companies must tackle illegal content such as child sexual abuse images and terrorist material.