U.S. Senators Ben Sasse and Jeff Merkley have introduced a bipartisan bill calling for extensive new censorship rules for adult websites.
Dubbed the Stop Internet Sexual Explotation Act , the bill was prompted, according to an
announcement from Sasse's office, by reports of how videos and photos are uploaded to websites like Pornhub without the consent of individuals who appear in them. In particular the bill seems triggered by charges filed against Pornhub parent company
MindGeek alleging that the company knowingly hosted and profited from the non-consensual videos over which website GirlsDoPorn.
Among the censorship measures the new bill seeks to enact are:
Require any user uploading a video to the platform to verify their identiry
Require any user uploading a video to the platform also upload a signed consent form from every individual appearing in the video
Creating a private right
of action against an uploader who uploads a pornographic image without the consent of an individual featured in the image
Requiring platforms hosting pornography to include a notice or banner on the website instructing how an individual can
request removal of a video if an individual has not consented to it being uploaded on the platform
Prohibiting video downloads from these platforms, to be in place within three months of enactment of the legislation
Requiring platforms
hosting pornography to offer a 24-hour hotline staffed by the platform, for individuals who contact the hotline to request removal of a video that has been distributed without their consent
Requiring removal of flagged videos within two hours of
such a request
Requiring platforms to use software to block a video from being re-uploaded after its removal, which must be in place within six months of enactment of the legislations
Directing the Federal Trade Commission to enforce
violations of these requirements
Creating a database of individuals who have indicated they do not consent, which must be checked before new content can be uploaded to platforms
Instructing the Department of Justice to promulgate rules
on where this database should be housed, and determine how to connect victims with services, to include couseling and casework
Establishing that failure to comply with this requirement will result in a civil penalty to the platform, with
proceeds going towards victim services
Digital Secretary Oliver Dowden and Home Secretary Priti Patel have announced the government's final decisions on new internet censorships laws.
New rules to be introduced for nearly all tech firms that allow users to post their own content or interact
Firms failing to protect people face fines of up to ten per cent of turnover or the blocking
of their sites and the government will reserve the power for senior managers to be held liable
Popular platforms to be held responsible for tackling both legal and illegal harms
All platforms will
have a duty of care to protect children using their services
Laws will not affect articles and comments sections on news websites, and there will be additional measures to protect free speech
Social media
sites, websites, apps and other services which host user-generated content or allow people to talk to others online will need to remove and limit the spread of illegal content such as child sexual abuse, terrorist material and suicide content. The
Government is also progressing work with the Law Commission on whether the promotion of self harm should be made illegal.
Tech platforms will need to do far more to protect children from being exposed to harmful content or
activity such as grooming, bullying and pornography. This will help make sure future generations enjoy the full benefits of the internet with better protections in place to reduce the risk of harm.
The most popular social media
sites, with the largest audiences and high-risk features, will need to go further by setting and enforcing clear terms and conditions which explicitly state how they will handle content which is legal but could cause significant physical or psychological
harm to adults. This includes dangerous disinformation and misinformation about coronavirus vaccines, and will help bridge the gap between what companies say they do and what happens in practice.
Ofcom is now confirmed as the
regulator with the power to fine companies failing in their duty of care up to £18 million or ten per cent of annual global turnover, whichever is higher. It will have the power to block non-compliant services from being accessed in the UK.
The legislation includes provisions to impose criminal sanctions on senior managers. The government will not hesitate to bring these powers into force should companies fail to take the new rules seriously - for example, if they do not
respond fully, accurately and in a timely manner to information requests from Ofcom. This power would be introduced by Parliament via secondary legislation, and reserving the power to compel compliance follows similar approaches in other sectors such as
financial services regulation.
The government plans to bring the laws forward in an Online Safety Bill next year and set the global standard for proportionate yet effective regulation. This will safeguard people's rights online
and empower adult users to keep themselves safe while preventing companies arbitrarily removing content. It will defend freedom of expression and the invaluable role of a free press, while driving a new wave of digital growth by building trust in
technology businesses.
Scope
The new regulations will apply to any company in the world hosting user-generated content online accessible by people in the UK or enabling them to privately or publicly
interact with others online.
It includes social media, video sharing and instant messaging platforms, online forums, dating apps, commercial pornography websites, as well as online marketplaces, peer-to-peer services, consumer
cloud storage sites and video games which allow online interaction. Search engines will also be subject to the new regulations.
The legislation will include safeguards for freedom of expression and pluralism online - protecting
people's rights to participate in society and engage in robust debate.
Online journalism from news publishers' websites will be exempt, as will reader comments on such sites. Specific measures will be included in the legislation
to make sure journalistic content is still protected when it is reshared on social media platforms.
Categorised approach
Companies will have different responsibilities for different categories of
content and activity, under an approach focused on the sites, apps and platforms where the risk of harm is greatest.
All companies will need to take appropriate steps to address illegal content and activity such as terrorism and
child sexual abuse. They will also be required to assess the likelihood of children accessing their services and, if so, provide additional protections for them. This could be, for example, by using tools that give age assurance to ensure children are
not accessing platforms which are not suitable for them.
The government will make clear in the legislation the harmful content and activity that the regulations will cover and Ofcom will set out how companies can fulfil their duty
of care in codes of practice.
A small group of companies with the largest online presences and high-risk features, likely to include Facebook, TikTok, Instagram and Twitter, will be in Category 1.
These
companies will need to assess the risk of legal content or activity on their services with "a reasonably foreseeable risk of causing significant physical or psychological harm to adults". They will then need to make clear what type of
"legal but harmful" content is acceptable on their platforms in their terms and conditions and enforce this transparently and consistently.
All companies will need mechanisms so people can easily report harmful content
or activity while also being able to appeal the takedown of content. Category 1 companies will be required to publish transparency reports about the steps they are taking to tackle online harms.
Examples of Category 2 services are
platforms which host dating services or pornography and private messaging apps. Less than three per cent of UK businesses will fall within the scope of the legislation and the vast majority of companies will be Category 2 services.
Exemptions
Financial harms will be excluded from this framework, including fraud and the sale of unsafe goods. This will mean the regulations are clear and manageable for businesses, focus action where
there will be most impact, and avoid duplicating existing regulation.
Where appropriate, lower-risk services will be exempt from the duty of care to avoid putting disproportionate demands on businesses. This includes exemptions
for retailers who only offer product and service reviews and software used internally by businesses. Email services will also be exempt.
Some types of advertising, including organic and influencer adverts that appear on social
media platforms, will be in scope. Adverts placed on an in-scope service through a direct contract between an advertiser and an advertising service, such as Facebook or Google Ads, will be exempt because this is covered by existing regulation.
Private communications
The response will set out how the regulations will apply to communication channels and services where users expect a greater degree of privacy - for example online instant
messaging services and closed social media groups which are still in scope.
Companies will need to consider the impact on user privacy and that they understand how company systems and processes affect people's privacy, but firms
could, for example, be required to make services safer by design by limiting the ability for anonymous adults to contact children.
Given the severity of the threat on these services, the legislation will enable Ofcom to require
companies to use technology to monitor, identify and remove tightly defined categories of illegal material relating to child sexual exploitation and abuse. Recognising the potential impact on user privacy, the government will ensure this is only used as
a last resort where alternative measures are not working. It will be subject to stringent legal safeguards to protect user rights.
Independent Quebec Senator Julie Miville-Dechêne is calling for censorship of online porn through new legislation that would force porn sites to verify the ages of all users.
Miville-Dechêne has introduced a bill, S-203, that would make porn sites
like the Canadian-owned PornHub criminally liable for failing to check a user's age before they browse.
Miville-Dechêne, who was appointed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2018, spouted anti porn rhetoric saying that children and teenagers must
be protected against graphic material that she said can pollute their minds. She continued:
I'm not on a crusade against porn. I just want to protect kids from porn that is shown widely on these websites that is not at
all the soft kind of stuff. It's hardcore, it's tough and it's violent.
Her bill would make it a Criminal Code offence to make sexually explicit material available to a minor on the internet. A first offence would be punishable by a
fine of not more than $10,000 for an individual and $250,000 for a corporation. Fines for subsequent offences would be more substantial.
U.S. Senators Ben Sasse and Jeff Merkley have introduced a bipartisan bill calling for extensive new censorship rules for adult websites. 
Digital Secretary Oliver Dowden and Home Secretary Priti Patel have announced the government's final decisions on new internet censorships laws. 
Independent Quebec Senator Julie Miville-Dechêne is calling for censorship of online porn through new legislation that would force porn sites to verify the ages of all users. 