{"id":94145,"date":"2026-02-18T19:55:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T22:55:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tech.einnews.com\/article\/893534114"},"modified":"2026-02-18T19:55:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T22:55:06","slug":"tech-firms-must-take-down-abusive-images-in-48-hours-or-face-being-blocked-from-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/2026\/02\/18\/tech-firms-must-take-down-abusive-images-in-48-hours-or-face-being-blocked-from-uk\/","title":{"rendered":"Tech firms must take down abusive images in 48 hours – or face being blocked from UK"},"content":{"rendered":"

18 February 2026, 17:55 | Updated: 18 February 2026, 22:35 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Technology firms that do not take down abusive images from their platforms within 48 hours face being blocked from the UK under new rules proposed by the government.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said he was putting tech companies “on notice” to take down non-consensual intimate images, and will leave “no stone unturned” to protect women and girls.<\/p>\n

Companies will be legally required by law to remove the images within 48 hours of them being reported to them.<\/p>\n

If they do not, firms could be fined 10% of qualifying worldwide revenue – which could amount to billions of pounds for some major platforms – or have their services banned from the UK.<\/p>\n

Ministers say tech firms should take tackling intimate image abuse as seriously as they take tackling terrorist or child sexual abuse material.<\/p>\n

The government is making the change through an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill, which is currently going through parliament.<\/p>\n

Media regulator Ofcom is also considering plans to treat non-consensual intimate images as the same as child sexual abuse material, which is digitally marked when found, so that any time they are re-shared, they are automatically taken down.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the government says it will publish guidance for internet companies on how to block “rogue websites” that host this content and fall out of reach of the Online Safety Act.<\/p>\n

Sir Keir said he would “leave no stone unturned in the fight to protect women from violence and abuse”.<\/p>\n

He said the government had already taken “urgent action against chatbots and ‘nudification’ tools”, and that they were “going further, putting companies on notice so that any non-consensual image is taken down in under 48 hours”.<\/p>\n

Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said: “The days of tech firms having a free pass are over… No woman should have to chase platform after platform, waiting days for an image to come down.”<\/p>\n

Shadow technology secretary Julia Lopez said when a similar proposal was put forward by Conservative peer, Baroness Charlotte Owen, Labour had failed to take action.<\/p>\n

“Once again, the government is playing catch-up to duck a major backbench rebellion.<\/p>\n

“The reality is that, for all the prime minister’s tough rhetoric, he has arrived late to this issue. He does not know what to believe – he only knows what to do to try and survive another week.”<\/p>\n

The move follows controversy in January over X’s AI tool, Grok, creating AI images undressing people without their consent.<\/p>\n

Creating non-consensual intimate images, including sexually explicit deepfakes, was criminalised earlier this month, and X stopped Grok from creating the images following the outrage.<\/p>\n

Other countries are also taking action against X, with Ireland’s data privacy regulator saying on Tuesday that X faces an EU privacy investigation over the non-consensual deepfakes created by Grok.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, Sir Keir announced a crackdown on social media platforms, such as closing a legal loophole to eliminate “vile illegal content created by AI”.<\/p>\n

Downing Street has also launched a consultation on measures like an Australian-style ban on under-16s using social media, and is ensuring it is able to implement one quickly if it is recommended.<\/p>\n

(c) Sky News 2026: Tech firms must take down abusive images in 48 hours – or face being blocked from UK<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/strong> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

… February 2026, 17:55 Technology<\/span> firms that do not take … the UK. Ministers say tech<\/span> firms should take tackling intimate … ;. Technology<\/span> Secretary Liz Kendall said: "The days of tech<\/span> firms … come down." Shadow technology<\/span> secretary Julia Lopez said when …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94145\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}