What has just happened?
With the imminent arrival of the first vaccinations against COVID-19, the Labour Party has called for new laws to introduce criminal and financial penalties for social media companies that fail to crack down on misinformation surrounding coronavirus (specifically “dangerous anti-vaccine content”[1]) that appears on their networks.[2]
What does it mean?
The issue for Parliament currently exists in form of the Online Harms White Paper that encompasses a collection of serious harms that are created or facilitated by the internet, from terrorist propaganda to the proliferation of child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA) imagery, as well as other issues such as the promotion of suicide and self-harm, cyberbullying and harassment and, most notably, online disinformation.[3] If the bill is passed, there will be a regulatory body responsible for its enforcement. The body will also offer advice to companies on reasonable expectations for compliance, based on both the severity and scale of the harm, the age of their users, and the size of the company and resources available to it.[4]
Labour’s reasons for wanting to rush the bill in for emergency enactment follow on from the party’s campaign against general online disinformation based on research carried out by the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH).[5]
In a letter to Oliver Dowden, the digital culture and media secretary, Labour warned that the spread of disinformation presents a “real and present danger” to vaccination efforts. The primary concern is that information spread by anti-vaccination groups will influence the population’s take up of the vaccine, effectively pro-longing the effects of the pandemic on society.[6]
The government announced an agreement with social media giants last week, but the details of the deal revealed that the only commitment they made was not to profit from or promote flagged anti-vax content.[7]
How does it affect the legal sector?
The most pressing legal concern the potential new legislation presents is that it might interfere with European Convention Human Rights, namely Article 10, Freedom of expression[8]. The Department for Digital and Culture and the Home Office have asserted that the overarching principle of the regulation of online harms is to protect users’ rights online, including the rights of children and freedom of expression. For this very reason, Safeguards for freedom of expression have been built in throughout the regulation’s framework. Rather than requiring the removal of specific pieces of legal content, regulation will focus on the wider systems and processes that platforms have in place to deal with online harms. Furthermore, the regulation will aim to protect freedom of expression by establishing differentiated expectations on companies for illegal content and activity, versus conduct that is not illegal but has the potential to cause harm. The regulation will therefore not force companies to remove specific pieces of legal content. This new framework will require companies, where relevant, to explicitly state what content and behaviour they deem to be acceptable on their sites and enforce this consistently and transparently.[9].
However, Adam Hadley, founder and director of the Online Harms Foundation, argues that a more sensible solution would be to require social media companies to run government adverts alongside anti-vaxxer content, stating that “controversial ideas are best defeated by debating and debunking them rather than by effectively banning people from talking about them”.[10]
Written by Hannah Phelvin
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References:
[1] Toby Helm ‘Social media firms must face sanction for ‘anti-vax content’, demands Labour’ (The Guardian, 15 November 2020) < Accessed 8 December 2020 > https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/15/social-media-firms-must-face-sanction-for-anti-vax-content-demands-labour
[2] Mariana Spring, ‘Covid-19: Stop anti-vaccination fake news online with new law says Labour’ BBC (BBC News, 15 November 2020) < Accessed 8 December 2020 > https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-54947661
[3] Alex Hern ‘Online harms white paper: could regulation kill innovation?’ (The Guardian, 4 April 2019) < Accessed 9 December 2020 > https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/apr/04/online-harms-white-paper-regulation-without-killing-innovation
[4] Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport and the Home Office, Online Harms White Paper (12 February 2020) ch. 1(13) < Accessed 9 December 2020 > https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/online-harms-white-paper/public-feedback/online-harms-white-paper-initial-consultation-response#our-response
[5] Jo Stevens ‘Labour Calls for Action to Tackle Coronavirus Disinformation on Social Media Platforms’ (The Labour Party, 4 June 2020) < Accessed 8 December 2020 > https://labour.org.uk/press/labour-calls-for-action-to-tackle-coronavirus-disinformation-on-social-media-platforms/
[6] Toby Helm ‘Social media firms must face sanction for ‘anti-vax content’, demands Labour’ (The Guardian, 15 November 2020) < Accessed 8 December > https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/15/social-media-firms-must-face-sanction-for-anti-vax-content-demands-labour
[7] Ibid
[8] The European Convention of Human Rights < Accessed 9 December > https://www.echr.coe.int/documents/convention_eng.pdf
[9] Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport and the Home Office, Online Harms White Paper (12 February 2020) < Accessed 9 December 2020 > https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/online-harms-white-paper/public-feedback/online-harms-white-paper-initial-consultation-response#our-response
[10] Toby Helm ‘Social media firms must face sanction for ‘anti-vax content’, demands Labour’ (The Guardian, 15 November 2020) < Accessed 8 December > https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/15/social-media-firms-must-face-sanction-for-anti-vax-content-demands-labour
Disclaimer: This article (and any information accessed through links in this article) is provided for information purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.