Regulators open consultation on platform accountability rules

Regulators have opened a consultation on how large platforms should account for the risks they carry. Under the proposed framework, the largest of them would publish independently audited risk assessments twice a year.

• Regulators have opened a consultation on platform accountability rules.
• Large platforms would publish risk assessments twice a year.
• Those assessments would be audited by someone outside the company.
• Nothing is settled: the consultation has to close first.

A regulator has asked the public what it thinks of a new set of rules for the biggest online platforms. Asking first is a normal step; the rules are a proposal, not a decision.

The proposal is about risk assessments — a company writing down what could go wrong on its service and what it is doing about it. Today a platform can keep that to itself. The proposal would make the largest ones publish it twice a year.

It would also mean an auditor from outside the company checks the assessment before it is published, so the company is not the only judge of its own homework.