Social media companies will be forced to take quicker action to stop users inciting violence and disorder on their platforms under changes to the UK’s online safety laws.
Technology Secretary Liz Kendall will next week introduce an update to the Online Safety Act to require services to remove illegal content as soon as possible.
No specific timeframe will be set for the removal of harmful posts, but officials expect it to be removed immediately. If providers fail to stick to the new rules, they could be fined up to 10% of their global turnover or have their services blocked in the UK.
Incendiary posts on social media have been blamed for horrific violence on the streets in Belfast this week. Harmful posts also swirled online leading to violent protests over Henry Nowak’s murder in Southampton last week, while misinformation fuelled the Southport riots after the murder of three girls at a Taylor Swift dance class in 2024.
In a post on Elon Musk’s X, where harmful posts have been known to explode in moments of scandal, Ms Kendall said: “Those who use social media to incite violence and disorder are breaking the law.
“Next week we will lay in Parliament an update to the Online Safety Act requiring services to take quicker action to remove illegal content circulating during times of crisis.”
View 2 ImagesTechnology Secretary Liz Kendall will next week introduce an update to the Online Safety Act(Image: Thomas Krych/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock)
Keir Starmer earlier vowed to “crack down on anyone who is fuelling this division” amid criticism of Musk and social media’s role in the night of violence in Belfast. The billionaire X owner, who continued overnight to promote calls for people to take to the streets in response to Monday’s knife attack, hit back at accusations he was inflaming tensions and blamed immigration policy.
Ofcom on Tuesday published new crisis response protocols ordering tech firms to stop illegal content going viral in moments of scandal. Ms Kendall’s update to the Online Safety Act will give a legal basis to the media regulator’s measures, which were drawn up after the Southport riots.
Illegal content can include false communications and state-sponsored misinformation. The regulator also said a real-world crisis such as a terror attack being live-streamed could cause a spike in illegal content online, including the sharing of hate speech or content created by a terrorist group. Ofcom defined a crisis as an “an extraordinary situation in which there is a serious threat to public safety in the UK”.
In a statement to social media firms, Ofcom said: “During a crisis, certain kinds of illegal content and/or content harmful to children can spread rapidly online. In some cases, this can create significant risks to public safety in the UK.
“Evidence from previous crises has shown how perpetrators use online services in a variety of ways to carry out illegal activity such as inciting racial or religious hatred, making threats, or inciting violence. Not only can this lead to an increase in the amount of illegal content circulating online but it can result in violence offline.”
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As part of its response guidance, Ofcom said tech firms should act “promptly and effectively during a crisis, to manage a significant increase in illegal content appearing and address the risk of their platform being used to commit or facilitate criminal offences”.
The regulator added that it will expect platforms to “deploy a temporary response team as soon as possible when a crisis occurs”.
Ofcom also said large online platforms should open a dedicated communication channel for police to contact them during a crisis. It also said providers should conduct a post-crisis analysis once a crisis has ended or 90 days after it has begun, whichever comes first.