Financial scams must be covered by Online Safety Bill to end 'Wild West' of the internet, MPs urge
Financial scams must be included in the Online Safety Bill to end the 'Wild West' of the internet, MPs have urged.
Fake investment sites and adverts placed online by criminals should be rooted out by the platforms such as Facebook and Google which host them, a report from the joint committee on the draft Online Safety Bill (OSB) said.
The report will pile further pressure on the Government to include scams in the OSB.
Online fraud: MPs want to see platforms such as Facebook and Google made responsible for removing fake investment sites and adverts placed online by criminals
City regulators, the banking industry and campaigners have urged ministers to do this.
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But the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) – which is overseeing the bill – has resisted the calls, which would make it the internet platforms' duty not to promote fraudsters.
But Tory MP Damian Collins, committee chairman, said they were 'unanimous in their conclusion that we need to call time on the Wild West online', adding: 'For too long, big tech has gotten away with being the land of the lawless.'
The calls echo this paper's Stamp Out Investment Fraud campaign, which has urged ministers to include fraud in the bill.
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