Social media bosses could be made criminally liable for extremist content on their platforms, as Boris Johnson signalled he would backtrack on his watered-down online safety law.
Former Digital minister Oliver Dowden had previously resisted including criminal sanctions in the forthcoming bill, saying tech firms were “much more motivated by financial consequences than they are by the criminal liability of individual people.”
But Keir Starmer raised the idea of criminal liability, backed by campaign groups including the NSPCC, at Prime Minister’s questions.
“Tough sanctions are clearly needed,” the Labour leader said.
“Yet under the government's current proposals, directors of companies failing to crack down on extremism would still not face criminal sanctions, why is that?”
Mr Starmer told MPs extremist material was readily available online - referring to the Mirror’s revelation that 40 hours’ worth of videos of hate preacher Anjem Choudary found in seconds on Google, just days after the murder of Tory MP Sir David Amess.
The Labour leader went on: “The government could stop this by making it clear that directors of companies are criminally liable for material on their sites.
“We don't need to delay, so in the collaborative spirit we saw on Monday, will the PM commit to taking this away, looking at it again and working with all of us to strengthen his proposed legislation.”
The Prime Minister committed to looking at “anything to strengthen” the long-awaited bill.
Asked to confirm whether the PM agreed with Mr Starmer on the need for criminal sanctions, the Prime Minister’s Deputy Spokesman said: “You have the PM's words.
“We are obviously very much alive to this issue which is why we wanted to create a legal duty of care through the online safety bill and we will continue to listen and work with the companies involved and any recommendations will be considered in the usual way."
Shadow Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Jo Stevens said: "After months of campaigning by Labour it was heartening to hear that Boris Johnson has relented and will introduce criminal sanctions for senior tech executives who break the rules, as part of the long awaited Online Safety Bill.
"We will be ensuring these are not just warm words, but that this law is toughened up. to do what's needed to make our online spaces safe. We must stop online spaces from being safe spaces for terrorists."
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