The British government intends to make encouraging others to harm themselves online illegal and will fine social media companies that fail to remove such material, as part of an overhaul of legislation governing online behaviour. Promoting suicide is already illegal, but the UK’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said in a statement that it now wants to require social media firms to block a wider range of content.
“Social media companies can no longer remain silent bystanders… and will face fines for allowing this offensive and destructive behavior to continue on their platforms under our laws,” Digital Technology Minister Michelle Donelan said. The Conservative government said the proposals aimed to block images and videos similar to those viewed by Molly Russell, the 14-year-old girl whose death in 2017 sparked ongoing public concern.
In September, a coroner investigating her death ruled that social media platforms had provided her with content that “romanticized acts of self-harm by young people”. Earlier versions sought to ban “legal but harmful” material online, drawing criticism from tech companies and free speech activists who argued the definition was too vague and could be used to arbitrarily criminalize otherwise legal behavior.
However, the bill has received strong support from children’s and mental health charities and people trying to curb racist and sexist abuse online. Under the proposals, social media companies will have to remove and limit users’ exposure to material that deliberately encourages self-harm. Last week, the government said the new legislation would also ban the distribution of sexually explicit images that have been manipulated to appear to show someone who has not given consent to appear in them.
Full details of the latest proposals – including the criminal penalties faced by people who promote self-harm and the range of fines companies face – will be published next month when the legislative changes are brought before Parliament. Broader legislation including such penalties, known as the Online Safety Act, has moved slowly through parliament since its first proposal in May 2021.
