The British government is increasing the pressure on tech companies to implement safety measures to protect women and girls.
Technology Secretary Liz Kendall issued a warning to digital platforms reiterating the government’s position that tech companies must use every tool at their disposal to protect women and girls, or face further action.
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) hosted a roundtable on Monday with figures from companies including Snapchat, Meta, YouTube and TikTok in which Kendall urged the platforms to go “further and faster”.
Preventing violence and harm to women and girls was a key manifesto pledge from Labour at the last general election and remains one of the government’s flagship ambitions.
“Every woman and girl deserves to be safe online and we will stop at nothing to ensure the digital world is working for them, not against them,” said Kendall.
“This government has taken tough action to tackle intimate image abuse, deepfakes and the online harms women and girls face every day.
“Now, tech companies must go above and beyond to use the tools readily available to them to make their platforms safer. If they don’t, these companies are not innocent bystanders – they are enabling abuse to thrive.”
Among the recent actions taken by the government to this end have been the introduction of a requirement for online platforms to remove non-consensual intimate images within 48 hours, the banning of nudification AI apps and investigations launched into X over its rampant deepfake generation via the AI chatbot Grok.
Three months ago, Ofcom set out measures companies can take to reduce online misogyny and abuse, including prompts to reconsider posts flagged as hateful and stronger privacy default settings.
Ofcom will report on what platforms are failing to comply soon.