LONDON

Tech firms and executives will face fines of up to £60,000 ($80,000) for failing to remove harmful knife crime content from their platforms, the British government said Friday.

The Home Office said the new penalty is part of a broader initiative to halve knife crime in the country.

It comes in addition to existing fines of up to £10,000 for individual tech bosses whose platforms do not remove such content within 48 hours of a police warning.

This means tech platforms and their executives could face up to £70,000 in fines for each post linked to knife crime that is not promptly taken down, the statement said.

Crime and Policing Minister Dame Diana Johnson said that the kind of content that young people scroll through every day online is "sickening."

"Our children need more from us. That is why we are now going further than ever to hold to account the tech companies who are not doing enough to safeguard young people from content which incites violence, particularly in young boys," she said.

Under the new system, failure to comply will trigger a civil penalty notice, rather than requiring court action – allowing sanctions to be applied more swiftly.

“The portrayal of knife crime on social media has significantly hindered efforts to reduce it. Beyond merely normalising, glamorising and desensitising young people to violence, it has often provided an illegal avenue for purchasing knives,” said Patrick Green, CEO of knife prevention charity the Ben Kinsella Trust, in the government statement.

Between March 2024 and February 2025, the Metropolitan Police recorded 15,182 incidents of knife crime, – up 2.7% on the previous 12 months, the BBC reports.