Technology company executives could be held personally liable for allowing illegal knives to be advertised on their platforms, under new British government plans to combat a recent rise in crime with weapons, some of which are readily available online.
Under the proposals, the police could gain the power to issue notices to bosses of digital firms ordering them to remove content, possibly within just two days. Those who fail to comply could face significant fines.
Holding social media executives personally liable for content posted by users would represent a significant shift in regulation of the internet. Companies have long enjoyed certain legal protections to shield them from responsibility for the words, pictures and videos shared on their services.
While the plans are still some way from becoming law, the initiative is part of a government commitment to fight growing cases of knife crime.
Although such crimes are below prepandemic levels, they increased 4 percent in the 12 months before March 2024 in England and Wales, with a much larger rise of 13 percent in robberies involving knives. There were 225 homicides in England and Wales in the 12 months to June 2024, according to one charity.
Earlier this year and before he became Britain’s prime minister, Keir Starmer gave his personal commitment to the families of victims of knife crime, meeting with several of them, including Pooja Kanda, whose son, Ronan, 16, was murdered in 2022 with a weapon bought online.
In a statement she said she was “very relieved that today the government have kept their promise to proactively ban the ninja sword that killed my son and protect others from having the same fate.”
Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, said that “the epidemic of knife crime that has grown over the last decade is devastating families and communities right across the country,” adding that she wanted to halve knife crime over the next decade.
As a first step the British government will consult on its proposals before likely embarking on a legislative process. Knife crime in Britain is concentrated in big cities and with 30 percent of all offenses recorded by London’s Metropolitan Police Service and 10 percent by the West Midlands Police, whose region includes the cities of Birmingham and Coventry.
In September the government added to the list of prohibited weapons machetes and “zombie knives” — weapons which are over eight inches in length and often have a serrated edge, spikes or more than two sharp points.
Britain’s proposal is part of a wider global trend of governments ramping up pressure on social media companies. In France, Telegram founder Pavel Durov was arrested in August on charges including complicity in criminal activity that occurred on his platform.
In Brazil, X was blocked for over a month, starting in late August, when the company refused to remove certain content. In Australia, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese last week proposed a ban on social media for people under 16 years old.
The proposal comes at a time of intense global debate about regulation of the internet and free expression. Many policymakers, particularly those in Europe, want companies like X, Meta, Google and TikTok to police their platforms more aggressively.
But in the United States, President-elect Donald J. Trump and his supporters like Elon Musk, the owner of X, have said such rules often target conservative voices and undercut free speech.
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