Big Tech takes a beating as online safety experts accuse companies of doing bare minimum
Accessing banned content is as easy as whipping out a thesaurus, Parliament's Communications and Digital Committee hears
Big Tech is receiving criticism for providing only a superficial level of compliance with the UK's Online Safety Act, say online safety experts gathered before Parliament's Communications and Digital Committee. The panel accused major tech companies, including Google, Microsoft, Meta, and ByteDance, of failing to effectively address dangerous content.
Clare McGlynn, a law professor, highlighted how search engines inconsistently downrank harmful search terms, allowing certain forms of harmful material to remain easily accessible. For instance, terms like "unwilling porn" appear on search results pages, while "forced porn" is heavily downranked. McGlynn argued that companies should take a more systematic approach to minimize the risk of harmful material appearing.
She also pointed out that fake pornographic sites, which openly advertise illegal content, manage to evade detection by search engines. Alexandra Whiston-Dew emphasized the need for tech companies to take more responsibility in detecting and addressing illegal content early in the publication chain. Despite initial enthusiasm in handling takedown requests, experts noted a decline in the success rate of such reports.
Meta, for example, saw its takedown success rate drop from 53.7% to 18.2% over the past year. Experts called for a stronger civil redress scheme to provide individuals with legal avenues to seek the removal of harmful content.
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