UK tightens legislation to counter russian social media disinformation
UK government is initiating a new law that will require social media to actively fight disinformation posted by foreign countries, namely russia, ZN.ua reports with reference to Reuters.
The government said the law would crack down on fake Facebook and Twitter accounts that were created on behalf of foreign countries to influence elections or court proceedings.
Britain's communications regulator Ofcom will develop guidelines to help social media companies comply with the law. The regulator will also have the right to introduce fines for violations.
Secretary of State for Digital Technologies Nadine Dorries said that the russian invasion of Ukraine showed how russia uses social media to spread lies about its actions.
"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," Dorries said.
Earlier, the European Commission presented a strict code of conduct in the fight against disinformation, already signed by such Internet giants as Google and Twitter. The updated version of the code, agreed against the background of the coronavirus pandemic and russia's unprovoked full-scale war against Ukraine, provides, among other things, for intensifying the fight against so-called "deep fakes," that is, very believable disinformation, in which russian propaganda has succeeded.
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