The regulation of “online harms” in Europe has just taken a big leap. On the same day just before Christmas, the European Commission unveiled the first draft of its proposal to update the responsibilities and liabilities of digital service providers in its “Digital Services Act” (DSA), and the UK announced an update on its Online Harms Bill, which is now very close to publication. In the context of Brexit, the divergence of the two regimes is stark and paves the way for some fascinating debates in 2021. Continue reading
The International Forum for Responsible Media Blog
Category: Internet (Page 1 of 15)
The government is planning to change the law so that social media companies like Facebook and Twitter will have no choice but to take responsibility for the safety of their users. Continue reading
Seven years ago I started to take an annual look at what the coming year might hold for internet law in the UK. This exercise has always, perforce, included EU law. With Brexit now fully upon us future developments in EU law will no longer form part of UK law. Continue reading
The COVID-19 pandemic has made it clearer than ever that we are at risk of losing control of our economies. Our institutions have increasingly struggled to meet the challenges of economic development before the crisis, and yet throughout the pandemic we’ve seen surging stock market valuations of tech giants — including staggering CEO salaries — the inability of anti-trust regulators, particularly in the United States, to effectively regulate markets and the rise of China’s tech companies. Continue reading
Artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer the stuff of science fiction. In the form of machine learning tools and decision-making algorithms, it’s all around us. AI determines what news you get served up on the internet. It plays a key role in online matchmaking, which is now the way most romantic couples get together. It will tell you how to get to your next meeting, and what time to leave home so you’re not late. Continue reading
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) this week proposed a new regulatory framework for digital competition which offers a tantalising insight into current UK thinking on tech regulation. Does the prospect of a new Digital Markets Unit with tough new rules for the biggest companies mean that tech giants are finally going to be obliged to serve our interests rather than the other way around? Continue reading
The Online Harms What?’ Caught in the middle of a pandemic and Britain’s ongoing divorce from Europe, it is not surprising that a piece of media-related legislation might be lost in the quagmire of more important and pressing matters in British politics. But this past year has proven that we need legislation to protect all of us online, now more than ever. Continue reading
Two decades ago, the US, UK and many other societies, without exactly intending to, delegated to digital platforms the redesign of the spaces where human beings meet, ignoring the possible social consequences. The result today, is a media ecosystem where it is business models, like those of Facebook and Google, that shape how our ideas and information circulate. Continue reading
Google and Facebook have launched a nationwide public relations campaign in response to the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission’s draft news media bargaining code. Continue reading
Regulating online platforms has proven difficult, and not only due to the overused idea that technology moves faster than law. It often boils down to an unwillingness by policy-makers to tackle the underlying systemic issues of big tech, exacerbated by active lobbying by the tech industry, and the myth that ‘innovation first, regulation later’ will ever work. Continue reading
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