In today's ExchangeWire news digest: the UK government reveals the details of the new online harms bill which seeks to curtail the spread of dangerous content; the Council for the European Union adopts a new resolution regarding encryption; and Facebook makes its Collab app available to the public.

UK government introduces the online harms bill

The UK government has revealed the details of its long-awaited online harms bill. First proposed in 2019, the regulation sets out strict new rules surrounding social media companies’ responsibility to remove harmful and illegal content from their platforms.

Sites including Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, will be obliged to proactively detect and remove distressing and dangerous material, such as terrorist propaganda and content depicting suicide, or else face a fine of up to £18m or 10% of global turnover. Ofcom, which has been appointed regulator by the bill, will also have the power to suspend services from the UK for failing to comply.

Under the bill, platforms will also be required to follow a code of conduct regarding their responsibilities towards children. Most of the leading platforms will be tasked with setting their own terms and conditions to ensure compliance with the code, and will face being fined if they breach them.

An initial proposal to levy criminal charges against individual executives of firms who have violated the new bill has been withheld so far, with the government asserting that it will introduce the rule via a piece of secondary legislation only in the event of significant non-compliance.

Whilst many have celebrated the new bill, others are sceptical that it will put an end to illegal content being posted online. Adam Hadley, director of the Online Harms Foundation, is one such critic, arguing that the legislation will simply push bad actors “on to self-owned underground platforms, where their views cannot be challenged or easily monitored.”

New EU resolution seeks to refine encryption

The EU body that represents EU member states’ respective governments has announced the adoption of a new encryption resolution. The Council of the European Union has turned its attention to how the technology is used to protect citizens’ data, as well as the circumstances under which the bloc should legitimately be able to break it.

The announcement comes after some reports intimated that the Council had drafted a new resolution that sought to ban end-to-end encryption. However, the draft and the final resolution both indicate that the Council is in favour of the technology, with the final text asserting support for “the development, implementation and use of strong encryption.”

The resolution, published yesterday (14^th December), indicates that the EU supports the use of robust encryption for the protection of users’ privacy whilst asserting that access to encrypted information should be permitted in certain cases to detect and prevent criminal activity.

In a statement, the Council wrote that “competent authorities must be able to access data in a lawful and targeted manner, in full respect of fundamental rights and the relevant data protection laws, while upholding cybersecurity.”

How the Council expects EU lawmakers to achieve the tricky balance of preserving the integrity of encryption whilst intentionally breaking the technology in order to root out cybercriminals remains to be seen.

Facebook launches Collab app

Facebook has made its experimental new app available for the public to download. Collab, which allows users to work together to produce music videos, went live on the App Store yesterday (14^th December).

First appearing back in May, Collab is one of Facebook’s emerging offspring born from the social media giant's search to find new ways to stay at the top. The new offering clearly seeks to snare musicians, who have been left in limbo by a pandemic which has suspended concerts and other live events, whilst tapping into the raging popularity of short-form videos.

The app allows users to create a 15-second “collab” by combining 3 separate videos so that they play in unison. Users can either elect to join in by playing along with another person’s video, or create their own “collabs” by mixing together videos uploaded onto the app.

Despite not allowing users to integrate their content directly to Facebook, Collab lets musicians promote themselves by allowing them to export their creations to other platforms (including rival TikTok) via iOS share.

Following fairly quickly behind the launch of Reels on sister-platform Instagram, it's clear that Facebook is looking to plant its flag firmly in the short-form video landscape.