UK’s Online Safety Bill says tech bosses could face jail time but The #Online_Safety_Bill, legislation that has now spanned 3 Prime Ministers, has reared its head in the House of Commons again. And in the face of a backbench #rebellion, #Sunak has caved to their demands. Bu what does this mean for Sunak's future as PM? #CyberNews #TLDRNews

"The House of Commons of the United Kingdom has passed the controversial Online Safety Bill, and it seems the hardliners have the upper hand as the proposed law threatens to jail tech executives for failing to protect children online. 

The potential prison sentence for tech managers who would fail to stop children from seeing harmful or abusive material online was added to the wording of the Online Safety Bill after a backbench rebellion, BBC reported. 

Nearly 50 Tory MPs wanted to amend the bill and introduce two-year sentences for managers of sites hosting user-generated content who would fail to take “proportionate measures” to stop material harmful to children from spreading online. 

Criminal liability 

And they did. The opposition – Labour – also supported the amendment, so the ministers had to make a deal with the rebels and promised to introduce similar proposals. 

Currently, the law only makes managers of tech companies criminally liable for failing to give information to UK media regulator Ofcom. But the new draft proposes personal criminal liability for the bosses – the supporters say it’s the only way to make child safety provisions effective. 

The document says “proportionate measures” could be age verification, taking content down, and parental control. If social media bosses ignore these rules, they could be jailed or fined. 

“The criminal penalties, including imprisonment and fines, will be commensurate with similar offences. While this amendment will not affect those who have acted in good faith to comply in a proportionate way, it gives the act additional teeth to deliver change and ensure that people are held to account if they fail to properly protect children,” Michelle Donelan, The Culture Secretary, said in a written statement. 

According to critics, though, both the fixation on child safety and several other measures actually threaten privacy and private communications online. They urge the UK Parliament to reject the current draft. 

Risk of over-moderation 

The Center for Data Innovation, a think tank studying data, technology, and public policy, says that there are “fundamental problems” and “fatal flaws” with the bill – even if the government made some improvements, such as dropping restrictions on “legal but harmful” content for adults to better protect free speech." 

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