Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
‘Fine social media giants over abuse’
Labour wants social media crackdown
SOCIAL media companies should be hit hard with fines if they fail to take down abusive content, Labour will say today.
Deputy leader Tom Watson will call for a new regulator and tougher sanctions to police the “wild west” of the internet.
He accuses the companies of not removing fake news stories that are “spreading like wildfire”, and being too lax on harassment and bullying.
Mr Watson will say Britain should follow the lead of Germany, which fines social media firms up to £45million for not taking down hate speech within 24 hours. He thinks No10 is dragging its feet and the UK should consider creating a commissioner to hold tech firms responsible for abuse on their sites. Mr Watson will say the likes of Facebook and Twitter have refused to change, adding: “Authorities worldwide don’t have the baby teeth, let alone the sharp teeth, to make them take notice. International regulatory regimes are outdated and dangerous.” Responsibility for overseeing social media here is shared by Ofcom, the Advertising Standards Authority and the Information Commissioner’s Office.
Mr Watson, also Shadow Culture Secretary, will say “this bitty, incomplete” system is a “barrier” to bringing social media companies into line.
At the Byline Festival in Nutley, East Sussex, he will add that the protection the firms have enjoyed as “platforms” rather than publishers needs to be withdrawn, adding they “won’t go to the lengths they need to unless they have a legal liability”.