INSTAGRAM and its rivals are complicit in murder and abuse being plugged online, the Home Secretary said yesterday.
Sajid Javid blasted the industry as he unveiled a blitz on the web’s role as a “hunting ground for monsters”.
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He said the likes of Facebook and YouTube were “quite happy” to profit from material on their sites.
Yet chiefs “dodged and evaded” responsibility for it. Mr Javid blasted: “We can’t allow leaders of tech companies to look the other way and deny their share of responsibility — even as content on their platforms incites criminality, abuse and even murder.
“To be a bystander is to be complicit. And I am not prepared to let them stand by any longer.”
His Online Harms white paper proposes some of the world’s strictest web laws.
He plans an internet watchdog that could be funded by tech firms and would impose tough rules.
Firms failing to delete terror propaganda and child abuse images could see execs heavily fined and sites blocked in the UK.
They would have to stop software automatically promoting material that encourages teenagers into self-harming or suicide.
Social networks would be made to step up the fight on fake news and stop trolls using multiple accounts to abuse public figures such as MPs and stars.
But some critics fear it could see private web chats monitored and freedom of speech hit.
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