MPs demand tougher action against online scam ads

Parliament_11MPs have called for a raft of new criminal offences as well as major changes to UK’s landmark Online Safety Bill, which seeks to police tech giants, amid claims the first proposals did not go far enough and used “wishy-washy” language.

In a new Parliamentary report from the Joint Committee on the draft Online Safety Bill, MPs demand far tighter rules to will tackle an industry that has become the “land of the lawless”.

Conservative chair Damian Collins MP added: “A lack of regulation online has left too many people vulnerable to abuse, fraud, violence and in some cases even loss of life.”

One of the key changes being demanded is that the legislation should cover scam advertising.

Collins said: “What’s illegal offline should be regulated online. For too long, big tech has gotten away with being the land of the lawless…. the era of self-regulation for big tech has come to an end.”

The first draft, published in May, put a duty of care on large social websites to remove harmful or illegal content and protect children but they were given the responsibility to please it themselves, with oversight from media regulator Ofcom.

At the time, MoneySavingExpert founder Martin Lewis, a long-term campaigner against scam ads, said: “We live in a world where the policing of scams is dangerously underfunded, leaving criminals to get away with fraud with impunity. This was a chance to at least deny them the ‘oxygen of publicity’ by making big tech responsible for the scammers adverts it is paid to publish.

“By not doing so the Government has failed to protect millions, in the midst of a pandemic, from one of the most damaging online harms to their financial and mental health.”

Under the committee’s recommendation, Ofcom would be charged with acting against platforms that consistently allow the publication of harmful advertisements.

The other recommendations of the report include an explicit duty for all pornography sites to make sure children cannot access them and the stamping out of the potential harmful impact of algorithms.

The report also recommends that a wide range of new criminal offences should be created, based on proposals from the Law Commission, including promoting or “stirring up” violence against women, or based on gender or disability; knowingly distributing seriously harmful misinformation; content “promoting self-harm” should be made illegal as should “cyber-flashing” and deliberately sending flashing images to those with epilepsy, with the goal of causing a seizure.

Collins said: “These changes would bring more offences clearly within the scope of the Online Safety Bill, give Ofcom the power in law to set minimum safety standards for the services they will regulate, and to take enforcement action against companies if they don’t comply.”

Another major addition is the recommendation that tech firms must appoint a “safety controller” who would be made liable for an offence – and even prison – if there were “repeated and systemic failings”.

The Government has two months to respond to the committee’s report, and the bill is expected to reach Parliament early next year.

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