By Kelvin Chan, Business Writer
LONDON (AP) --Senior managers at tech companies would face up to two years in prison if they fail to comply with British rules aimed at ensuring online safety for internet users, the U.K. government said Thursday as it unveiled the draft legislation in Parliament.
The ambitious but controversial online safety bill would give regulators wide-ranging powers to crack down on digital and social media companies like Google, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok.
Authorities in the United Kingdom are the vanguard of a global movement to rein in the power of tech platforms and make them more responsible for harmful material such as child sex abuse, racist content, bullying, fraud and other harmful material that proliferates on their platforms. Similar efforts are underway in the European Union and United States.
While the internet has transformed people's lives, "tech firms haven't been held to account when harm, abuse and criminal behavior have run riot on their platforms," U.K. Digital Secretary Nadine Dorries said in a statement. "If we fail to act, we risk sacrificing the wellbeing and innocence of countless generations of children to the power of unchecked algorithms."
British lawmakers still need to vote to approve the bill before it becomes law.
The government has toughened the legislation since it was first written after a committee of lawmakers recommended improvements. Changes include clamping down on anonymous trolls, requiring porn sites to verify users are 18 or older, and making cyberflashing — or sending someone unsolicited graphic images — a criminal offense.
Tech executives would be criminally liable two months after the law takes force, instead of two years afterward as proposed in the original draft. Companies could be fined up to 10% of their annual global revenue for violations.
There's also a wider range of criminal offenses that could result in prison sentences of up to two years in the updated draft.
Initially, tech executives faced prison time for failing to quickly provide regulators with accurate information needed to assess whether their companies are complying with the rules.
Now, they would also face it for suppressing, destroying or altering information requested or not cooperating with regulators, who have the power to enter a tech company's premises to inspect data and equipment and interview employees.
The government said it will outline categories of harmful but legal material that the biggest online platforms such as Google and Facebook will have to tackle, instead of leaving it up to the "whim of internet executives."
That's aimed at addressing concerns of digital activists who worried the law would crimp freedom of speech and expression because companies would be overzealous in removing material that upsets or offends people but isn't prohibited.
Sony reports healthy profits on strong sales of sensors and games
Sony's profit rose 69% in July-September from a year earlier on the back of strong sales of its image sensors, games, music and network services, the Japanese electronics and entertainment company said on Friday.
Quarterly profit was 338.5 billion yen ($2.2 billion), up from 200 billion yen in the year-earlier period, while consolidated quarterly sales edged up 3% year-on-year to 2.9 trillion yen ($19 billion).
Tokyo-based Sony's latest quarterly results were boosted by healthy demand around the world for image sensors used in mobile products.
Sales also held up in its video games division. During the latest quarter, 3.8 million PlayStation 5 game consoles were sold globally, compared with 4.9 million units sold the same period a year ago.
Demand remained strong for PS5 game software, according to Sony.
The top-selling music releases from Sony for the quarter included "SOS" by SZA, David Gilmour's "Luck and Strange" and Kenshi Yonezu's "Lost Corner."
One area where Sony's business suffered was its pictures division, including TV shows and movies, which was impacted by production delays caused by the strikes in Hollywood.
Among the recent hit films from Sony was "It Ends With Us," a romantic drama based on a novel.
Sony, which also makes digital cameras and TVs, maintained its 980-billion yen ($6.4 billion) profit forecast for the fiscal year through March 2025, up 1% from the previous fiscal year.
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