The UK tech secretary, Liz Kendall, has warned that major tech companies must use “every tool at their disposal” to protect women and girls from abuse and misogyny online or face further action from the government.

At a roundtable held yesterday, March 9, with large social media companies such as Meta, TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube, the secretary of state urged platforms to go further and faster in implementing safety measures.

The message was stated following a series of interventions the government has taken to better meet its commitment of halving violence against women and girls within the next decade.

Over the last 6 months, the UK Government has made intimate image abuse, cyberflashing, and choking priority offences under the recently-implemented Online Safety Act. This material is now treated with the same seriousness as child abuse or terrorism.

Further, new legal requirements introduced by the government mean tech firms must now remove intimate images shared without consent within 48 hours of being flagged. An amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill also created a new offence criminalising “nudification” apps, AI tools that generate synthetic sexualised images of people.

Following the prime minister’s calling out of Grok for its illegal sexualised images that were being spread on its site, the government then fast-tracked legislation to ban the creation of non-sexual intimate deepfakes.

Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator, has also set out measures that companies can take to reduce online misogynistic abuse, harassment, stalking, and image-based sexual abuse.

The regulator is now expected to report on what platforms are failing to comply, and the government is encouraging Ofcom to do so as soon as possible.

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“Every woman and girl deserves to be safe online and we will stop at nothing to ensure the digital world is working for them, not against them,” said tech secretary Liz Kendall.

“This government has taken tough action to tackle intimate image abuse, deepfakes and the online harms women and girls face every day.

“Now, tech companies must go above and beyond to use the tools readily available to them to make their platforms safer. If they don’t, these companies are not innocent bystanders – they are enabling abuse to thrive.

“That is why we are asking Ofcom to report swiftly on how companies are complying, because better safety and better accountability go hand in hand.”