LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — The United Kingdom (UK) Government said on Friday, tech bosses could face prison sentences if their platforms fail to remove intimate images published without consent, as it moves to strengthen online safety laws.

“Tech executives could be held personally liable if platforms fail to comply” with orders from the regulator Ofcom “to remove people’s intimate images that have been shared without consent,” the Government said in a statement.

The Labour Government, which holds a working majority in the House of Commons, has tabled an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill currently before Parliament in order to introduce the measure and protect the public from “vile online pornography”.

In February, ministers had already said the legislation would give platforms 48 hours to take down intimate images shared without consent.

That announcement came after an international backlash over the AI assistant Grok, integrated into Elon Musk’s social media platform X, which was able to generate sexually explicit deep fake images of real people.

“Too many women have had their lives shattered by having their intimate images shared online without consent,” Technology Minister Liz Kendall said in the statement.

Companies that fail to remove such content within the deadline could face fines up to 10 per cent of their global turnover, or even be blocked in the UK, the Government has warned.

Under the new amendment, non-compliant senior executives could face “imprisonment or a fine, or both”.

Other amendments published on Friday would also make “possessing or publishing pornography depicting incest or adults pretending to be children” a criminal offence with a maximum sentence of five years.

These changes come into force as part of the Government’s latest measures “to halve violence against women and girls in a decade and protect children from scourge of sexual abuse”.

“We will stamp out misogynistic and harmful content online and create a safer world,” said Minister for Victims and Tackling Violence Against Girls Alex Davies-Jones.