The British government said on Monday it will explore making social media executives personally liable for harmful content published on their platforms, in a raft of new online safety proposals.
The plans unveiled in a policy paper, which also include creating an independent regulator, aim to tackle all kinds of harmful content from encouraging violence and suicide to spreading disinformation and cyber bullying.
The issue has gained added urgency with Facebook’s failure to immediately halt livestreams of a March 15 attack by a self-avowed white supremacist on two mosques in New Zealand that killed 50 people.
Prime Minister Theresa May warned tech companies they had “not done enough” to protect users and that her government intended to put “a legal duty of care” on the firms “to keep people safe”.