UK to require tech firms to remove abusive images within 48 hours

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Technology companies will have to take down abusive images from the internet within 48 hours or risk having their services blocked in the UK, under new laws proposed by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.

The plans, which will also require tech businesses to detect and remove intimate images shared without consent, could also result in companies being fined up to 10 per cent of their worldwide revenue if they fail to act.

The government’s move is part of a wider strategy to crack down on violence against women and girls, with the announcement coming just weeks after ministers called out the Grok AI chatbot of Elon Musk’s xAI for creating sexualised images of children.

“The online world is the frontline of the 21st century battle against violence against women and girls. That’s why my government is taking urgent action: against chatbots and ‘nudification’ tools,” Starmer said on Wednesday.

“Today we are going further, putting companies on notice so that any non-consensual image is taken down in under 48 hours,” he added.

The plans, to be implemented through an amendment to the government’s crime and policing bill, will be designed to ensure victims must only report a non-consensual image once — with the content required to be removed from any platform where it appears.

Creating or sharing non-consensual intimate images will also become a so called priority offence under the online safety act, meaning the crime is treated with the same seriousness as child abuse or terrorism.

On Monday Starmer warned Musk and other tech executives that “no platform gets a free pass” on illegal content in the UK, as he announced moves to bring AI chat bots — such as Google’s Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT as well as Grok — within the scope of the online safety act.

The UK government also opened a consultation last month to ask whether young people under the age of 16 should be barred from social media, following a ban introduced by Australia in December.

France is close to passing a similar law, while Spain, Greece, the Netherlands and Denmark have said they will act to keep young people off social media platforms.