UK’s new regulator to check 'behaviour' of Google, Facebook under fresh guidelines

In an effort to rein in digital industry's key players, UK’s new tech regulator Alok Sharma has proposed reforms to limit power of Google, Facebook, and or tech giants. Under UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), Sharma aims to draft a pro-competition regulatory regime to create a fair market for consumers, as he said, domination of a few tech giants “hurts invation”.

According to UK’s DCMS release, CMA will acquire Digital Markets Unit and will draft a new code of conduct to regulate “behaviour” of techlogical firms under UK’s new regulations. 

While details of code and type of restrictions on companies remains unclear, it is likely to impact firms that enjoy strategic market status and platforms funded by digital advertising. UK’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport will also set up new policies aimed at “fair deals” and terms and conditions for digital news publishers to enable m to be able to monetise ir content, DCMS informed. reform will ensure that tech firms ensured “more transparency” about services y provide and data consumption. Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will coordinate with regulators including Ofcom and Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and will introduce measures by 2021, April. 

UK's Digital Secretary Oliver Dowden told reporters of UK's Central Fife Times that while he was "unashamedly pro-tech" and believed that  services of digital platforms have been positively transforming ecomy, bringing huge benefits to businesses, consumers and society, he is also concerned about misuse of power. re is a growing consensus in UK and abroad that concentration of power among a small number of tech companies is curtailing growth of sector, reducing invation and having negative impacts on people and businesses that rely on m, he told CFT's reporters.

Meanwhile, Business Secretary Alok Sharma said that Digital platforms like Google and Facebook make a significant contribution to  ecomy and play a massive role, but dominance of just a few big tech companies is leading to less invation, higher advertising prices and less choice and control for consumers. Furr, UK's House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee warned that "fundamental imbalance of power” must be fixed to ensure that publishing platforms were pulled out of existential threat. 

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Combat 'disinformation'

Earlier, Digital Secretary Oliver Dowden and Health Secretary Matt Hancock made social media tech giants agree to a pack of measures to combat disinformation related to covid vaccines and pandemic. “ company should be profiting from COVID-19 vaccine disinformation and commit to swifter responses to flagged content,” UK’s government emphasized in a release.

Digital Secretary Oliver Dowden and Health Secretary Matt Hancock conducted a round table meeting to make Facebook, Twitter, and Google commit to principle to flag pandemic-related unverified content “more swiftly”. “Covid disinformation is dangerous and could cost lives. While social media companies are taking steps to stop it from spreading on ir platforms re is much more that can be done,” Digital Secretary Oliver Dowden said. new measures will seek commitment from social media giants “t to profit from or promote flagged anti-vax content, given that making money from this dangerous content would be wrong,” he added. 

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