UK Government to Propose Holding Social Media Bosses Liable for Harmful Content

The heads of social media companies could become personally liable for harmful content that gets published on their platforms under new plans set to be proposed by the British government. The plan, leaked to the Guardian, is also set to call for a new regulator, annual “transparency reports” from social media companies and co-operation with law enforcement.
Under plans expected to be published on Monday, the government will legislate for a new statutory duty of care, to be policed by an independent regulator and likely to be funded through a levy on media companies. The regulator – likely initially to be Ofcom, but in the longer term a new body – will have the power to impose substantial fines against companies that breach their duty of care and to hold individual executives personally liable.