Ofcom is willing to regulate social media
Incoming chairman Lord Burns says if law changes, media watchdog could enforce accountability
‘Will the resources be there, is it practical, without consultation, how is it that you will actually do it?’
Steven Swinford
Mason Boycott-owen
OFCOM is prepared to step in and regulate social media if the Government changes the law, the incoming chairman of the media regulator has said. Lord Burns suggested Ofcom would be a “suitable vehicle” for monitoring whether postings on social media websites broke the law.
It comes after the Committee on Standards in Public Life, an independent ethics committee, called for a change in the law to make social media companies responsible for illegal content on their websites.
The move would stop companies and publishers from describing themselves as “platforms” with no responsibility for the millions of messages and videos that they host.
The committee found that social media had fuelled “persistent, vile and shocking” abuse of MPS and candidates during the general election. Lord Burns, a former chairman of Channel 4, said that he did not see “any reason” why Ofcom should not regulate social media websites if the law changed.
Speaking to the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee, he said: “The thing about regulators I’ve noticed, and I don’t want to get into trouble with the company before I start, is that they are very hesitant about taking on new obligations. There is always the question: will the resources be there, is it practical, without consultation, how is it that you will actually do it?
“But following the spirit of what you have said I’m sure that if there was a requirement to do this that Ofcom would certainly be a suitable vehicle.”
He questioned whether the current status of social media websites as “platforms” is sustainable given the significant changes in technology.
He said: “I’ve been following this issue about platforms versus publishers. There must be a question of how sustainable that is. I don’t want to take a position on that at this stage. As far as I’m concerned, the rules under which we are working at the moment is that they are defined as platforms.
“There will be an ongoing debate about that, for the moment that’s where they are. I find it difficult to believe that over time there isn’t going to be further examination of this issue.
However, Lord Burns said that in the long term there will need to be “international cooperation” to help tackle illegal messages and posts on social media websites. “It would be nice to think that the combination of the law and the commercial pressures and indeed the general pressures upon the platforms will lead to them being rather more nimble about all of this than they have been so far. These challenges are going to get greater and greater and tensions will mount.” ♦french children younger than 16 will need parental approval to open accounts on social networks under a draft law presented yesterday. The data privacy bill seeks to improve consumer access to the information that companies gather and sell to other companies regarding their users’ online activity.