Internet regulation in Britain

The main articles are:

• Censorship (control and anonymity) on the Internet
• Great Britain

2022: UK lifts social media requirement to remove 'legitimate but unwanted' content

The UK government has scrapped a requirement forcing social media to remove "legitimate but unwanted" content. The decision comes after lawmakers and activists raised concerns that the demand could limit free speech online. This became known on November 30, 2022.

In the previous version of the bill, companies such as Twitter or Meta (recognized as an extremist organization in the Russian Federation, its activities are prohibited in Russia) were sanctioned if they did not remove certain types of content that the British government considered "legal but undesirable."

Lawmakers have decided to scrap the rule over concerns it could allow the government to crack down on content and risk restricting people's free speech.

Social networks are still required to remove illegal content related to criminal activities - fraud, threats, harassment and kidnapping, pornography, the sale of drugs and weapons.

However, platforms can set their own rules on how to handle "harmful but legitimate content." If companies decide to remove any material or block a user, they are obliged to give him the opportunity to appeal this decision.

For non-compliance with their own rules, companies will be fined up to 10% of annual turnover^[1] has^[2].

2019

The government spent millions preparing legislation to block porn, but it was not approved

At the end of October 2019, the UK government spent more than £2 million ($2.6 million) to prepare a law to block pornography, but it was not approved.

Most of the costs, £2.2 million, were paid to the film classification British Council to carry out detailed work on the law in 2016. Prior to that, taxpayer money covered the costs of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whose employees were tasked with developing relevant proposals.

The UK government spent more than £2 million ($2.6 million) to prepare a law to block pornography, but it was not approved

The government's initial plan was for providers to check the ages of porn site visitors - all of them must be over 18, otherwise the provider would expect a serious fine. In practice, the implementation of this plan would require the intervention of third parties who could provide credit card checks and ID scans.

However, the difficulty of implementing the program pushed back the date of consideration of the law - first the hearing was postponed to April, and then to the end of 2019. As a result, on October 16, Culture Minister Nikki Morgan announced that the law had not been approved. The government decided to completely abandon the proposed measures in favor of larger solutions for regulating Internet content.

This procedure will give regulators the right to choose the most effective ways to fulfill their obligations, Morgan said. - Adult content is unnecessarily readily available online, and we are ready to implement the necessary measures to protect our children from its harmful influence.

It is worth noting that it was not only public funds that were wasted. Some private companies have already developed content control software, which they intended to launch on sale immediately after the approval of the law.^[3]

Apple, Google and Microsoft published an open letter to the British intelligence service against the interception of encrypted correspondence

• Google's relationship with governments and intelligence agencies around the world

In May 2019, an international coalition, which included public organizations, security experts and technology companies (including Apple, Google, Microsoft and WhatsApp), published^[4] open letter to^[5] UK Government Communications Center, in which it opposed DIN 's proposed initiative to intercept encrypted correspondence. According to the authors of the letter, the proposal put forward last year by the special services violates human rights, threatens security and undermines the confidence of citizens. From an open letter:

"The phantom DIN protocol poses a serious threat to digital security: if implemented, the authentication process will be undermined, allowing users to make sure that they communicate with exactly who they think. The protocol will also add potential hidden vulnerabilities and increase the risk of improper and unauthorized use of[6] systems[7]. The presence of cybersecurity threats will mean that users will no longer be able to trust the protection of their communications, as they will not be sure that they really know who they are communicating with. Thus, there is a violation of fundamental human rights, including the right to privacy and freedom of expression. Moreover, new potential vulnerabilities will appear in communication systems, and there will be a risk of their malicious exploitation. "

The idea of ​ ​ the phantom protocol proposed by the DIN is to provide an opportunity for law enforcement agencies and special services to secretly add hidden interlocutors to encrypted chats from users. The proposal was published for discussion in the fall of 2018.

The authors of the initiative are Ian Levy, a specialist at the UK's National Cyber ​ ​ Security Center, and Crispin Robinson, a representative of the DIN. In their opinion, such an "exclusive access mechanism" can be built into platforms in order to provide law enforcement officers with the ability to bypass end-to-end encryption.

"We do not mean weakening encryption or abandoning end-to-end encryption. We are talking about blocking notifications on the target device and, possibly, on the devices of the interlocutors. This is a completely different proposal for discussion without the need to touch encryption, "the authors of the project said.

Internet companies forced to protect users from cyber threats

On April 8, 2019, the British government introduced, as it claims, the world's first online security rules. They oblige Internet and technology companies to monitor customer information security and be responsible in the event of harm.

The new regulation, developed by Britain's Department for Culture, Media, Digital Industry and Sport (DCMS) and the Home Office, requires social media and other services to take "reasonable steps" to protect users from cyber threats. The latter include online bullying, the spread of misinformation and prohibited content, terrorism and various actions that are not necessarily illegal, but can cause serious damage.

The world's first online security rules have been approved. Companies must protect users from cyber threats

Legislative innovations will apply to technology companies of all sizes that allow you to share and access content, as well as interact with other Internet users.

Announcing the new measures, Prime Minister Teresa ​​Mey said internet companies have been "inactive" for too long in protecting their users, especially young ones, from harmful content.

Everything they've done is not enough. Now it's time to do something different. We have listened to campaigners and parents and we place a legal responsibility on internet companies to look after people's safety, "May said.

The Minister of Culture, Media, Digital Industry and Sports Jeremy Wright stressed that the era of self-regulation for internet companies has passed.

It is assumed that a new regulator will be created that will monitor compliance with the new rules and impose fines if they are violated. The calculation of fines can be based on the system of the EU Regulation on the Protection of Personal Data (GDPR) and account for up to 4% of the company's annual turnover.^[8]

Britain will acquire its own Roskomnadzor

The Ministry of Digital, Culture, Media and Sports of Britain proposed to create an independent agency in the country that will regulate content on the Internet. Together with the Home Office, the ministry has developed a draft document called Online Harms White Paper^[9], a public discussion of which will last for 12 days^[10].

The authors of the document propose to create an independent agency that would develop a set of rules for technology companies, and give it the right to charge fines for their violation. The document also allows for the possibility of introducing fines for the management of guilty companies and blocking violating sites.

"The era of self-regulation of companies on the Internet has come to an end. Voluntary actions by industry representatives are not applied sufficiently, "said British Culture Secretary Jeremy Wright in an interview with the BBC

According to the document, the new department will deal with sites distributing illegal content (propaganda of terrorism, child pornography, etc.) and selling illegal goods. Under the gaze of the regulator will also be sites involved in cyberbullying (electronic bullying), trolling and the spread of fake news. The authors of the project also propose to oblige social networks to remove content promoting suicide.

Home Office is the department of the UK government responsible for immigration control, security and order. The functions of the Home Office are similar to those of the Home Office in other countries. Police, UK Border Force and Security are working closely with him.

2018: Allowing money transfers through instant messengers

Since January 13, 2018, the nine largest, banksGreat Britain serving most of the population, are no longer the only means to conduct financial transactions within. states

The new directive, called Open Banking, aims to make remittances easier in the UK. Now financial institutions are required to share their customer data with other companies if customers give permission to do so. This means that third parties will be able to make payments on behalf of customers or pay their bills.

Britain allowed money transfers through instant messengers

Such an innovation opens the door for high-tech companies like [[Facebook] and Google, which have long been trying to penetrate banking without becoming banks. Both Facebook and Google provide financial transactions in the UK through dedicated apps - Facebook Messenger and Google Wallet. Taking into account the new directive, Facebook can enter payments through WhatsApp, which will allow, for example, to pay through the application the account of a roommate in a grocery store. Similarly, the new law would allow Google Pay to be used more freely.

Previously, in order to access account or transaction data, these companies had to negotiate deals directly with UK banks, which limited the ability to apply applications. The new rules have forced major UK banks to implement interfaces that ensure the security of customer data transfers with their permission.

The next time you need to send a friend ten pounds, you will not have to tinker with a boring bank application, searching for details, confirming your identity and, finally, transferring money, "explained financial adviser David Birch in Wired UK. - You'll just get "+ 10 pounds" on WhatsApp chat.

In addition, the seller from Amazon will no longer have to contact a third party to contact Visa or MasterCard. They can simply accept this payment directly from your bank account.

Thanks to the new directive, such companies and startups can become real competitors to traditional financial institutions.^[11]

2017: Police Britain: Intelligence services should have access to users' WhatsApp correspondence

Encryption of user messages in WhatsApp, according to the head of the British Ministry of Internal Affairs Amber Rudd, plays into the hands of terrorists, since the special services cannot track the communication of users in this messenger.

The fact that intelligence services should have access to user correspondence on WhatsApp was announced in March 2017 by British Interior Minister Amber Rudd. In her opinion, due to the encryption of information by this and other means of online communication, extremists are actively used in their criminal activities^[12].

She stressed: "We should make every effort so that such messengers do not become secret places where terrorists could communicate with each other." Rudd believes that the country's authorities, for their part, should legalize the ability for intelligence services to read messages that are transmitted in encrypted form through such means of communication.

2016

British Parliament approved its own "Spring package"

The House of Lords of Great Britain passed a law in the fall of 2016 that makes it easier for intelligence agencies to access user data. The document has already been popularly called the Snooper's charter, RIA Novosti writes.

The law stipulates that ISPs, mobile operators and software providers will have to store information about users' network activity throughout the year. At the request of special services and government organizations, the data can be decrypted, and a warrant for these actions will be needed only in some cases.

The document also allows hacking of electronic devices of citizens in the presence of a warrant, which will be issued by a special body consisting of a commissioner and independent judges.

The Investigative Powers Act, which allows surveillance of users on the Web in order to ensure national security, was recently approved by the British Parliament. The bill was proposed by the current British Prime Minister Theresa May, who, while still the country's home minister in 2015, has repeatedly drawn attention to the fact that law enforcement agencies need full access to citizens' personal data to ensure national security.

According to the act, law enforcement agencies receive carte blanche during "large-scale operations" for massive data collection from a large number of devices, including abroad, if there is the slightest suspicion of preparing a terrorist attack. Special services are given the right to hack mobile devices, computers, networks, servers. And the law will oblige all providers to store data on users' visits to sites for a year. Recorded should be such information as: who visited, what sites, what kind of information he viewed, time of visit, date and devices from which access to the Web was carried out.

The law may enter into force at the end of November 2016. It is noted that experts and representatives of the media industry, including Apple, Google, Microsoft, Twitter and Facebook, opposed the adoption of the document, which was presented back in 2012 by former Home Secretary Theresa May (now the head of the British parliament). The National Union of Journalists of Great Britain was also an opponent of the initiative.

Recall that a similar bill was adopted in Russia, called the "Spring package." The anti-terrorist package of amendments to the legislation obliges Internet companies to store information about the facts of data reception and transmission for at least one year, and telecom operators for three years. At the same time, the very content of messages, including text, voice information and video, and both companies will have to store up to six months. Draft regulatory legal acts for the Yarovaya package should be ready by the end of the first half of 2017. By this time, the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications of Russia will work out documents specifying the procedure, storage terms and volume of subscriber traffic.

British Prime Minister approved total surveillance of citizens of the country

An independent examination of British law enforcement legislation showed that in order to prevent terrorist attacks, special services must carry out mass interception, collection and storage of confidential information of the country's Internet users. The findings of the study were supported by British Prime Minister Theresa May, reports Reuters in August 2016.

powers are often the only means by which our intelligence agencies can protect the people of the UK from the threats we face," May said.

The report, prepared by expert David Anderson, argues that mass data collection is the only way for intelligence agencies to obtain the necessary information. As May noted, Anderson's research proves the feasibility of granting special powers to British law enforcement agencies.

See also

• Internet regulation in EU countries
• Internet regulation in Kazakhstan

Notes