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Web firm bosses could be fined or put in prison if they fail to protect users from harmful content

Web platforms will be given new targets to ensure illegal content is taken down quickly.

Ofcom will be put in charge of regulating the internet, the government has announced, with executives that internet firms could potentially face serious fines or even prison sentences if they fail to protect users from “harmful and illegal content” online.

Under the proposals, Ofcom will not have the power to remove specific posts from social media platforms. Instead, it will require internet companies such as Facebook and Google to publish explicit statements setting out which content and behaviour they deem to be acceptable on their sites. The media regulator will then ensure internet businesses enforce these standards “consistently and transparently”.

The culture secretary, Nicky Morgan, and the home secretary, Priti Patel, promised that changes to the proposals would guarantee free speech for adults online and only target larger internet businesses. However, some tech start-up groups warned that it would still place an enormous burden on smaller businesses to police content that is potentially harmful but not illegal.

Among the proposals announced on Wednesday, it was revealed:

• Any business that enables the sharing of user-generated content – such as online comments or video uploads – is likely to be affected by the new rules on reducing online harms, with hundreds of thousands of British companies affected.
• Internet businesses will be required to publish annual transparency reports explaining what harmful content they have removed and how they are meeting their standards.
• The government wants companies to bring back age verification for certain websites, following an abandoned attempt to introduce it last year to restrict access to online pornography.

The plan to require regulation has already raised concerns among the publishers of mainstream newspapers, with some outlets that have campaigned for the legislation as a way of reducing the power of internet companies fearful that their own news website comment sections could now be regulated for online harms. Ministers have previously reassured traditional publishers that they will be excluded from the legislation.