The government wants YouTube and Facebook, which owns Instagram, to be subject to the same rules as publishers YUI MOK/PASocial media executives could be arrested and held personally liable if content that is harmful to children or vulnerable people is not taken down from their sites, a minister has suggested. Jackie Doyle-Price, the minister for mental health and suicide prevention, called for YouTube and Facebook, which owns Instagram, to be treated like publishers and take responsibility for material on their platforms. The government said yesterday that it would empower a regulator to control the sector and give legal force to codes of practice for social media companies. Mrs Doyle-Price told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “They are currently operating as if they are completely not responsible for the content that sits on their platforms. That isn’t an excuse we are going to have any…

Source: The Times February 06, 2019 00:32 UTC