Welcome to the latest Carnegie UK Trust Online Harms update, where we bring together the latest news, research and developments relating to Online Harms policy in the UK and further afield to help campaigners, advocates and policy folk stay connected.
In the last couple of weeks we’ve seen new reports from Which? on the emotional impact of online harms, from NSPCC on how the Government’s proposals stack up against their conditions for delivering a duty of care, and from CCDH on the impact of Instagram’s algorithm. This week, we’re looking forward to the launch of the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute’s new report on making online spaces safer and Demos’ Good Web Festival.
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What’s been happening?
The road to regulation
In response to a question from Baroness Benjamin on age verification, Baroness Barran confirmed (again) that the Online Safety Bill would be ready “later this year”, but also that “we are already working closely with Ofcom to ensure that the implementation period that will be necessary following passage of legislation is as short as possible”.
The Government has published its response to the Lords Select Committee on AI report, which makes reference to the forthcoming online harms regulation and media literacy strategy as a means to address some of its concerns. Meanwhile, GCHQ has been “embracing AI” in its work to combat hostile disinformation and child abuse on platforms.
The Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum, comprising the ICO, CMA and Ofcom, has published its annual programme of work and is open to feedback on the proposals.
The NSPCC has published its analysis of the Government’s Online Harms proposals when set against the six tests they set out last year for delivering a duty of care.
Don’t miss this powerful, detailed long read by Karen Hao on Facebook’s algorithm and the spread of misinformation, nor – if you missed it at the time – this overview of internet governance in 2021 by Wolfgang Kleinwacther and this round up by Jared Cohen, former US State Department, on options for “techno democracies”.
A number of major internet companies, including Amazon, Go Daddy and Blacknight, have signed up to a framework to address DNS abuse, in particular “if a domain is linked to malware, phishing, pharming or a botnet” then it will be taken down once the company is made aware of it.
The paper on the risks associated with ever bigger language models that led to the sacking of Timnit Gebru at Google has now been published. Their recommendations include: “weighing the environmental and financial costs first, investing resources into curating and carefully documenting datasets rather than ingesting everything on the web, carrying out pre-development exercises evaluating how the planned approach fits into research and development goals and supports stakeholder values, and encouraging research directions beyond ever larger language models.”
This Politico review of the spread and increasing sophistication of Covid19 misinformation over the past year is worth a read.
Consumer harms and scams
Which? has published research into the emotional impact of online scams, calling on the Government to include this in the Online Safety Bill. This doesn’t seem imminent; in response to a Commons question on online scams, the Digital Minister Caroline Dinenage reiterated the commitment in the Full Response to the Online Harms White Paper that “through an ongoing programme of work, the government is considering additional legislative and non-legislative solutions to effectively address the harms posed by all elements of online fraud”.
In other government activity in this area, a campaign has been launched to raise awareness of fake medical products being sold online; the FCA has published its review of its work to tackle consumer harm between Jan-Oct last year; and the CMA has launched an investigation into Apple’s suspected anti-competitive behaviour. Elsewhere, Nominet has expanded its law enforcement landing pages to include counterfeit medicine, financial scams and serious online crime, which means that users clicking on a domain that has been suspended will be redirected by the MHRA, FCA or NCA to a site offering consumer advice.
Online hate, abuse and intimidation
Remarks from a recent UNDP event on “Preventing Atrocity Crimes: Countering and Addressing Hate Speech” have been published.
Privacy and data rights
DCMS has published its response to the call for evidence on representative actions under the Data Protection Act. Catch up with the debate on this topic led by Baroness Kidron in the Lords here.
The European Data Protection Supervisor’s recently published opinion on the Digital Services Act is potentially far-reaching: detail here.
The UK’s priorities for the “digital and technology track” of its G7 presidency later this year, which include internet safety, have been published.
The European Commission has published its extended code of practice on coronavirus disinformation, alongside a set of reports on measures taken by the Code of Practice signatories, including Facebook, Google, Microsoft, TikTok and Twitter. While the Commission acknowledged the actions taken by the platforms, it also asked for more data on the evolution of the spread of disinformation during the COVID-19 crisis, and on the “granular impact of their actions at the level of EU countries.” Meanwhile, Transparency International has published a report on the scale of Big Tech Lobbying in Brussels, identifying that tech policy is the issue that generates the most lobbying activity at the European Commission and that the “voice of civil society was rarely heard”.
The EUIPO has published an anti-counterfeiting technology guide which focuses on the five main categories of technology: electronic, marking, chemical and physical, mechanical, and technologies for digital media.
The European Parliament has voted on its supply chain report: “The report calls on the European Commission to come up with a law obliging EU companies to address aspects of their value chains that could affect human rights, the environment and good governance.”
The recent “For the People Act”, which aims to bring in sweeping changes to federal election laws along with important changes to federal campaign finance, lobbying, and government ethics laws, has passed through the House of Reps based on the Democrat majority and is now headed to the Senate. US Rep Suzan DelBen has introduced privacy legislation, the Information Transparency and Personal Data Control Act, which would require the FTC to promulgate regulations related to sensitive personal information, and for other purposes.
The state of Utah has published a Bill that will require social media platforms to clearly state their content moderation policy, and inform Utah users within 24 hours when they run foul of it. Lawmakers judge that it’s not in violation of First Amendment because it does not say what you must moderate but that you must say how you do it and do it fairly. The Bill is now being looked at by the governor.
Get involved
Consultations and inquiries
DCMS call for evidence to inform the review of the Gambling Act: deadline 31st March.
European Commission consultation on transparency of political advertising: deadline 2nd April.
Glitch’s campaign for 10% of the proposed tech tax to be ringfenced to tackle online abuse continues; a 10% commitment would amount to £150m of the £1.5bn estimated to be raised annually. Read more about the campaign here.
22nd March – an academic panel, including Prof Lorna Woods, gives evidence to the APPG on Social Media to inform its “Selfie Generation” inquiry.
23rd March – Oral Question in the Lords, tabled by Lord Faulkner, on “Removing Anonymity from Persons Who Post Racist or Grossly Offensive Material Attacking Public Figures.”
25th March – Parliament is in Recess until 13th April.
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