House of Lords push to create a super regulator
The report hopes that the industry will welcome the recommendations for their own long-term interest or they run the risk of further action being taken.
The report hopes that the industry will welcome the recommendations for their own long-term interest or they run the risk of further action being taken.
The House of Lords Communications Committee has recommended a new regulatory framework for digital services in the UK as part of the government’s Internet Safety Strategy.
The recommendation, made in the Regulating in a digital world report, prescribes creating a new body with access to the highest level of the Government.
The report highlights the gap in digital regulation since there are over a dozen individual regulators but no specific content regulator for the internet. As the report states, the services that constitute the digital world should be held accountable through this new body. It can also bring them together to an agreed and enforceable set of principles.
Digital Authority: The new digital watchdog
The motive of the committee report is to make the UK the safest place in the world to be online. It intends to create an environment that is intolerant towards online activities like misuse of personal data, abuse, and hateful speech.
The report said: “Responses to growing public concern have been piecemeal, whereas they should be continually reviewed as part of a wider strategy. A new framework for regulatory action is needed. We recommend that a new body, which we call the Digital Authority, be established to instruct and coordinate regulators.
“The Digital Authority would have the remit to continually assess regulation in the digital world and make recommendations on where additional powers are necessary to fill gaps. The Digital Authority would also bring together non-statutory organisations with duties in this area.”
The following gaps have been highlighted by the report:
Principles for regulation
The report recommends 10 principles to guide the development of regulation online:
These principles will help the industry, regulators, the Government and users work towards a common goal of making the internet better. It would create an environment that is more respectful and is beneficial to all.
With these principles, the internet would remain open to innovation and creativity. Also, a new culture of ethical behaviour would be embedded in the design of services.
Recommended structure and frequency of reporting
The House of Lords Communications Committee feels that the new body should report to the Cabinet Office and be overseen at the highest level. The Digital Authority will co-ordinate regulators across different sectors and multiple government departments.
Apart from providing advice to the Government, it’s recommended that the Digital Authority should report to Parliament on a quarterly basis. The report concludes that the combined force of the Digital Authority and the joint committee, proposed to be established comprising of both the Houses, will bring a new consistency and urgency to regulation.
The House of Lords has also urged for a need for strictest privacy and safety settings. As of now, the default settings make for financial sense putting privacy to the backseat. The users can be given the option of voluntarily lowering the settings if they wish.
“The Information Commissioner’s Office should provide guidance requiring platforms to provide greater choice to users to control how their data are collected and used,” the report’s authors’ added.
Recent data and security developments have seen the introduction of more governance. The NHS got an AI code of conduct to ensure that only the best and safest data-driven technologies are used by the NHS and will protect patient data. Meanwhile, an independent Biometrics and Forensics Ethics Group had published ethical principles to guide police facial recognition trials.