Content laws are coming, and coming soon.

Unlike the ongoing partisan divide in Washington over regulating social media, politicians in the European Union and United Kingdom are already on the same page and they are about to make Facebook do something it has long tried to avoid: take legal responsibility for content.

Under proposals expected to be completed by next year, the EU wants to overhaul its existing hands-off approach to Facebook and others via its so-called Digital Services Act. Those rules will make it mandatory for tech companies to immediately remove illegal content, such as hate speech, or face hefty fines. For politically divisive or other legal but harmful material, such as posts sowing distrust in a country’s election, social media platforms must also show outside auditors and regulators how they are stopping that content from spreading like wildfire.

Across the English Channel, British lawmakers are going one step further. In rules, known as the Online Safety Bill, to be voted on by the end of 2021, the likes of Facebook will be held to a so-called duty of care to protect their users from both illegal and legal, but harmful, content — a world first. Penalties for inaction include fines totaling 10 percent of a company’s annual revenue and potential prison sentences for social media executives.