UK lawmakers call for tougher crackdown on online scammers, cyberflashing

A man types on a computer keyboard in this illustration picture taken February 28, 2013. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/File Photo

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LONDON, Dec 14 (Reuters) – Google, Facebook and other online services should be held legally accountable for advertisements on their platforms in order to prevent fraudsters scamming millions of consumers, a cross-party group of British lawmakers has said.

Britain has proposed a landmark online safety law to punish abuses such as child pornography, racism and violence against women, but a joint committee of lawmakers drawn from both houses of parliament said on Tuesday it should go a step further to cover paid-for adverts.

“Excluding paid-for advertising will leave service providers with little incentive to remove harmful adverts, and risks encouraging further proliferation of such content,” the joint committee report said.

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The Financial Conduct Authority also wants adverts on social media and search engines, currently excluded from the draft law, to be included after 754 million pounds ($999.65 million) was stolen from consumers in the first six months of this year.

The report also backed a Law Commission recommendation to make cyberflashing, or the unsolicited sending of obscene images or video recordings, which are often a feature of sexual harassment, illegal.

The draft law is due to be approved in 2022 and government has two months…

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