The UK government’s plans to crack down on social media stepped up a notch at the weekend, with ministers taking to TV to promise stern new measures to punish companies which do not act on absusive content or under-age users.

Culture Secretary Matt Hancock revealed on the Andrew Marr show that only four of the 14 largest social media companies invited to consult with the government, actually bothered to show up.

The move follows several months of calls from the government for technology and social media companies to take more responsibility for policing content and cracking down on the issues of cyber bullying and abuse.

With voluntary action and self-regulation clearly not having the desired effect, the government is preparing to get tough.

“The fact that only four companies turned up when I invited the 14 biggest in, gave me a big impetus to drive this proposal to legislate through,” said Hancock. “Before then, and until now, there has been this argument ‘work with the companies’. You know, do it on a voluntary basis, they’ll do more that way because you’re not – the lawyers won’t be involved, they’ll be doing best efforts.”

“And after all, these companies were set up to make the world a better place. The fact that there are now companies that have social media platforms with over a million people on then and they didn’t turn up.”

Here’s the link to our Internet Safety announcement today – we’ll bring in new laws to make Britain the safest place to be online: https://t.co/IAbV0zZdZ0

— Matt Hancock (@MattHancock) May 20, 2018

Mr Hancock said that the government “just don’t know” how many of the millions using using social media were children, not old enough for an account. He also stated that he remains “very worried” about age verification. He also said he hopes “we get to a position” where all users of social media have to get their age verified.”

He also revealed the government is working on a white paper discussing how social media services verify the age of members so that age restrictions are not ignored.

Digital Minister Margot James,  appeared on Sky News’ Ridge on Sunday discussing new legislation which would demand social media companies remove abusive content almost immediately.

“We are going to expect companies to take down this stuff immediately.” Ms James envisages ‘something similar’ to the UK Data Protection Act’s penalties of up to 4% of global turnover for non-compliance.

‘We are going to ask social media companies to take down abusive content immediately’ says Minister for Digital Margot James pic.twitter.com/FjGddHkfCl

— Ridge on Sunday (@RidgeOnSunday) May 20, 2018

Ms James went on to state that AI could be used to do the job and stated that the costs for policing content should be the company’s own responsibility, rather than the taxpayer.

“It should be up to the platform itself.” she said. “The fact that most of them don’t is highly irresponsible, which is why we intend to introduce legislation.”

Hancock has suggested the instant takedown proposal could become law within two years.