Britain has said it will mandate technology companies to remove intimate images shared without consent within 48 hours of a complaint, warning that firms which fail to comply could face penalties of up to 10% of their eligible global revenue and, in extreme cases, the blocking of their services.
The government said the move is intended to strengthen protections for women and girls amid global efforts to curb online abuse, particularly in an environment where private images can be rapidly circulated and AI tools can generate explicit content with ease.
It added that legislation currently before Parliament would be amended to place a legal obligation on major platforms to take down such material within two days of it being reported.
Although the sharing of non-consensual intimate images is already illegal in Britain, ministers acknowledged that victims often struggle to secure permanent removals from platforms. Keir Starmer was quoted as saying that tackling violence against women and girls has become a frontline issue in the digital age, Reuters reported.
The rise in non-consensual imagery has also fed into a broader debate on online safety in Britain. The government said ministers are examining whether to introduce restrictions on social media access for those under 16, drawing parallels with steps taken in Australia.
Britain added that its media regulator, Ofcom, is considering treating the sharing of illegal intimate images with the same level of seriousness as child sexual abuse and terrorist content.
Under the proposed approach, victims would only need to report an image once, with platforms expected to remove the same content across their services and prevent it from being re-uploaded. Any penalties would be calculated on the basis of a platform’s ‘Qualifying Worldwide Revenue’, a metric used by Ofcom.
In a separate statement, Ofcom said it plans to fast-track a decision on new rules that would require platforms to deploy hash-matching tools to block illegal intimate images at source. The regulator indicated that a decision is expected in May, with new measures potentially coming into force by the summer.