Inline Insights

This month, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) updated its ambitious Digital Markets Strategy. The 2019 strategy was originally meant to address the growth of digital markets and its effect on consumers and competition. The recent update reflects the work that the CMA has done since it first published the strategy - including its all-important recommendations for a pro-competition regime for digital markets - and comes as debates around digital competition continue to gather pace in the UK and beyond.

Preventing illegal hate speech online is a priority for policymakers worldwide, and the need to do so is increasingly evident. How can governments strike the right balance between tackling the mechanisms and incentives behind the proliferation of illegal hateful content online, while also ensuring that platforms do not enable censorship? A closer look at present and future debates demonstrates the intricacies of keeping an ever-growing number of internet users safe and preserving their fundamental rights.

As the UK prepares some of the most ambitious online harms legislation in the world, the unprecedented efforts taken by tech companies to curb the spread of COVID-19 falsehoods have raised a number of questions for regulators and policymakers. The UK may need to adapt its original stance on online harms in order to face the ‘new normal’.

The ongoing COVID-19 outbreak is forcing companies to turn to technology solutions, given that a significant part of their workforce has switched to working remotely. This abrupt shift in workforce and workplace organisation makes both the benefits and challenges of “people analytics” evermore relevant to business leaders and policymakers alike.