Facebook increasingly finds itself under pressure here in the United States over its data and privacy practices. However, the same is also true overseas — and at least one country is seriously considering escalating its fight with the social media giant. This week, the UK government warned Facebook and its individual executives that they could face criminal prosecution if they fail to reduce the platform’s harmful effects on users.
While debating a proposed piece of legislation called the Online Safety Bill, UK Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries said that her government should immediately crack down on Facebook instead of giving it far-out deadlines to comply with the law.
“Why would we give them two years to change what they can change today?” Dorries said. “Remove your harmful algorithms today and you will not be subjected — named individuals — to criminal liability and prosecution.”
“I think it’s nonsense that platforms have been given two years to make themselves ready for what would be criminal action. They know what they’re doing wrong now,” she continued.
This is a more extreme proposal than even what Facebook is dealing with here in the U.S. It’ll be interesting to see if it actually succeeds in rattling the company into taking stronger actions to strengthen user privacy.
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