#ofcom

Ofcom to update codes of practice amid rise in ‘revenge porn’ and AI-generated deepfakes targeting women and girls Social media, messaging platforms and online forums that publish intimate image abuse – often intended to humiliate women and girls – are being instructed to follow new guidelines to stop it spreading. Ofcom said it will change its codes of practice to force service providers to detect and quash intimate image abuse – sometimes called “revenge porn” – and crack down on AI-generated deepfakes. A wave of deepfakes emerged in January when Elon Musk’s Grok AI was widely used to create sexualised videos of women in bikinis. Continue reading...

Jess Phillips’ frustration about online safety highlights the alarming reluctance to confront big tech The £950,000 fine imposed by Ofcom on a US-based suicide forum that is implicated in over 160 UK deaths marks an intensification of the regulator’s efforts to make the internet safer. Campaigners against online harms, including relatives of people who have taken their own lives, are justifiably angry that it has taken so long to get to this point. Even now, Ofcom is giving the website’s operator the chance to address “concerns” and avoid a court order that would ban access to it. But if enforcement remains a tortuous process, at least the principle is clear. It is illegal to encourage or assist a suicide in England and Wales (in Scotland, such actions could lead to prosecution as reckless endangerment or a range of other offences). A situation whereby behaviour is tolerated online, when it would carry criminal penalties if carried out in person, cannot be allowed. Continue reading...