Online giants face sanctions over ‘fake news’

‘There has to be a way of scrutinising the procedures that companies such as Facebook put in place’

FACEBOOK and Twitter have been threatened with sanctions if they refuse to help a Parliamentary investigation into Russian interference in the EU referendum.

Damian Collins, chairman of the culture, media and sport select committee which is conducting an inquiry into “fake news”, has given the social media giants three weeks to hand over the information requested by the committee.

He said if they fail to comply, the committee will consider sanctions that could be imposed, such as encouraging the advertising industry to withdraw business on “ethical” grounds. Facebook and Twitter are suspected to have been used by the Russians to spread false information during the EU referendum campaign.

In December, the companies handed over “completely inadequate” information to the Electoral Commission in response to a different question, a response Mr Collins described as “extraordinary”. He told The Guardian: “There has to be a way of scrutinising the procedures that companies such as Facebook put in place to help them to identify known sources of disinformation, particularly when it’s politically motivated and coming from another country.”

In a letter to Twitter earlier this month, Mr Collins described the information supplied by the company as “completely inadequate”.

He said: “If you’re selling advertising against [fake accounts], that cannot be ethical and, clearly, that is something the advertising industry should be interested in.”