BRITAIN PROPOSING NEW LAW FOR SOCIAL MEDIA GIANTS TO ACTIVELY TACKLE RUSSIAN DISINFORMATION

Tue 05 July 2022:

The British government is considering a new law that would oblige social media companies to actively combat misinformation published by other countries, such as Russia.

The measure would address fake accounts created on behalf of foreign governments to sway elections or court action on websites like Meta’s Facebook and Twitter.

The law is likely to be passed during this parliamentary session link to an amendment that links the National Security Bill and the Online Safety Bill.

Digital Secretary Nadine Dorries said that regulator Ofcom will draw up codes of practice to help social media companies comply with the law.

Highlighting how Russia uses social media to spread lies about its actions following its invasion of Ukraine, Dorries said “We cannot allow foreign states or their puppets to use the internet to conduct hostile online warfare unimpeded.”

“That’s why we are strengthening our new internet safety protections to make sure social media firms identify and root out state-backed disinformation,” she added.

“Disinformation is often seeded by multiple fake personas, with the aim of getting real users, unwittingly, then to ‘share’ it,” said UK Security Minister Damian Hinds, as per the report. He added, “We need the big online platforms to do more to identify and disrupt this sort of coordinated inauthentic behaviour. That is what this proposed change in the law is about.”

As tensions rage over the Kremlin’s offensive, Russian authorities said Monday that a square outside the British embassy in Moscow will be named after pro-Kremlin separatists in Ukraine.

Since the Kremlin sent troops to Ukraine on February 24, London does not recognise the self-proclaimed People’s Republics in eastern Ukraine and staunchly supported Kyiv.

A number of Western countries changed the names of the streets hosting Russian missions after President Vladimir Putin announced his ”special military operation” to demilitarise and denazify Ukraine.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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