Ofcom chair says tech firms must prioritise safety alongside clicks
The death of the teenager Molly Russell is an urgent reminder that big tech needs to be forced into a new era of accountability and to prioritise trust and safety alongside “clicks and profit,” says the new chair of the UK media regulator Ofcom.
Michael Grade said Ofcom was set to be given new powers under the government’s online safety bill that he would use to hold the biggest and most powerful tech companies to account.
“There is an urgent need for sensible, balanced rules that protect users from serious harm,” said Grade, speaking at the Royal Television Society’s London convention on Tuesday. “As the current inquest into Molly Russell’s tragic death reminds us, this is an urgent task.”
On Monday, a senior executive at Instagram’s owner, Meta, apologised at Molly’s inquest after confirming that the platform had shown her content that violated its policies before she died.
Molly, 14, from Harrow, north-west London, killed herself in November 2017 after viewing extensive amounts of content related to suicide, self-harm, depression and anxiety.
“We need a new era of accountability where companies have to prioritise trust and safety alongside clicks and profit,” Grade said, in his first speech since taking up the role of Ofcom chair this year.
“Big tech firms must shift their regulatory responsibilities from the public policy departments, where they sit today, to the frontline staff responsible for designing and operating their products.”
Grade compared the attitudes of big tech to those of bankers who believe their compliance departments “belong in a galaxy far, far away”, with the people who design and operate the tech platforms not touched by safety concerns.
“Under the planned laws, Ofcom will have powers to summon people
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