Social media sites face being BANNED in major law change over intimate image abuse

New legislation will force social media networks to take down non-consensual intimate images within 48 hours – or face huge fines and a possible ban

Social media giants face being banned or hit with huge fines if they fail to take down intimate images posted without consent quickly.

Platforms were put on notice ahead of tough new legislation forcing them to remove such posts within 48 hours. Ministers have warned that tech firms have been too slow to respond to non-consensual images being shared online.

Keir Starmerwho headed the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) before becoming an MP, said: “As director of public prosecutions, I saw first-hand the unimaginable, often lifelong pain and trauma violence against women and girls causes.

“As Prime Minister, I will leave no stone unturned in the fight to protect women from violence and abuse. The online world is the front line of the 21st century battle against violence against women and girls.”

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OPINION

Sophie Huskisson

Regulator Ofcom is currently looking at ways of digitally marking these pictures to make sure they are automatically removed if someone tries to repost them.

This already happens with child abuse and terrorism-linked images. The Government is bringing in the legislation as an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill, which is making its way through Parliament.

Under the plans, a victim would only have to report an image once for it to be removed from multiple platforms.

Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said platforms would no longer have a free pass, adding: “No woman should have to chase platform after platform, waiting days for an image to come down. Under this government, you report once and you’re protected everywhere.

“The internet must be a space where women and girls feel safe, respected, and able to thrive.” And Alex Davies-Jones, minister for violence against women and girls, said the change in the law would mean platforms can no longer drag their feet.

It comes after the Government unveiled plans to close legal loopholes which have allowed chatbots to create deepfake nude images. This follows an outcry over Elon Musk’s Grok AI chatbot – embedded into the social media site X – was used widely to make fake nude images of women.