(REUTERS): The British government will announce plans for a new law under which social media companies will have a duty to be impartial and be barred from ‘arbitrarily’ removing comments because they are controversial.
According to an international newspaper, the concerned ministers will announce plans next week for a statutory duty of care, which will be enforced by Ofcom, the broadcasting regulator.
The news report further informed that firms that fail to meet the obligations may face multimillion-pound fines or be blocked from operating in Britain. The government representative has not immediately responded in this regard.
The newspaper cited a source as saying that the British government was concerned that social media companies were removing legitimate content on grounds that it was controversial rather than because it was harmful or inaccurate.
Britain will also be imposing a new competition regime next year to prevent Google and Facebook from using their dominance to push out smaller firms and disadvantage consumers.
The code will be enforced by a dedicated unit within the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which this year said it needed new laws to keep the tech giants in check.
