The Online Safety Bill has passed through both houses of parliament and is now waiting for Royal Assent before becoming law.
The bill means search engines and social media platforms will have a legally enforceable duty to remove suspected scammers.
They must also take down scam adverts immediately on notification and improve their due diligence process so that it becomes much harder for scammers to market investment products using paid adverts.
The government has described this bill as a “milestone” moment as it protects both adults and children online.
Quilter is pushing the government to make faster work with the Online Safety Bill.
In response to today’s (20 September) news, the firm’s chief risk officer Priti Verma said: “We’ve had an exceptionally long period of time where politicians and organisations have all been saying the same thing – that the Online Safety Bill must include measures that put the onus on the tech companies to take direct action for advertising scams and impersonation scams.
“It is therefore a good step forward that this bill is finally going to receive Royal Assent and includes those measures.”
During 2022, financial services trade body UK Finance reported that over £1.2bn was stolen through fraud.
Verma said: “The fact that, until now, fraudsters were able to sell their fraudulent wares, with virtually no regulatory measures in place to protect consumers, or sanctions on those tech firms, has been a failing for many years.
“The tech sector must now step up, embrace the new measures and help raise awareness of online threats through advertising and media campaigns.”
In anticipation of the bill being passed into law, Snapchat and TikTok have already made changes to their age verification and removed underage accounts.
In August, Hargreaves Lansdown found that 21% of investors aged 18-34 turn to Instagram to get ideas where best to send their money.
Hargreaves Lansdown head of investment analysis and research Emma Wall said that 16% of investors from the same category went to Facebook (Meta) for investment ideas, 14% to Reddit and 8% to TikTok.
When looking at investors over the age of 55, none used Instagram, Reddit and TikTok for investment ideas, although 1% do use Facebook.
Out of those aged 35-54, 35% go to a website of a financial company and 34% of those over 55 do the same for investment ideas.
However, 32% of investors aged 18-34 turn to a website of a financial company for investment guidance. The Online Safety Bill had resulted in such issues receiving a lot more attention.
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