Removal of safe harbour provisions will harm small firms the most: Google Executive

NEW DELHI: The complete removal of safe harbour provisions that give social media and internet intermediaries protection from third-party content will harm smaller firms the most and they can become very hesitant about innovating new products and services, a senior Google executive told ET.

“A framework that has a safe harbour from being responsible for all the content that’s travelling over your systems is a cornerstone to ensuring innovation and investment in those technologies. If a company is liable for everything that is going across their system, they can be very hesitant about growing products and services to facilitate content,” the vice president of government affairs and public policy at Google, Markham Cho Erickson said.