Social media giants should repay the British public for money lost to fraudulent advertising seen on their websites, the chair of parliament’s digital, culture, media and sport select committee has said.
Julian Knight was quizzing representatives from Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and TikTok about online safety in an evidence session in parliament this week.
The session was in preparation for the Online Safety Bill, which is making its way through parliament and will subject tech platforms to fines, restrictions and possible criminal liability if they do not protect their users from harmful and illegal content.
Online fraud is rife and has surged during the pandemic, with more than £2.3bn estimated to have been lost by consumers to cyber scams between April 2020 and April 2021. This figure is based on reported crimes, so the true figure is likely to be much higher. Last year, Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator, also found that scams and data hacking are the biggest concerns for UK adults around using the internet.
One form of online fraud tricks consumers through fake adverts, which either carry endorsements from celebrities, promote products for sale on fake websites, or promote schemes that offer early access to pension pots or…
