Social media giants face tax to fund curbs on fake news
FACEBOOK, Twitter and Google are facing the threat of new taxes to help fund a crackdown on fake news and misinformation that is poisoning British democracy, according to MPS.
A report from the digital, culture, media and sport select committee proposed that Facebook and other social media firms should pay a levy to cover the costs of Britain’s data privacy watchdog, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
Damian Collins, the chairman of the committee, called for urgent action to tackle the threat posed by fake news, including social media being liable for the content posted online, possibly exposing them to lawsuits from people who have been targeted by hate speech.
The report warned of “relentless targeting of hyper-partisan views, which play to the fears and prejudices of people, in order to influence their voting plans and their behaviour”.
A version was leaked yesterday by Dominic Cummings, the former Vote Leave campaign strategist, ahead of its official publication tomorrow.
The ICO is investigating the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which 87 million Facebook users had their personal data collected without their consent and passed to the British election consultants.
A levy, understood to work similarly to the charges imposed on financial services in the UK by the Financial Conduct Authority, would also cover the cost of introducing social media and data privacy protection onto the national curriculum to improve pupils’ understanding of how social media may be used to manipulate them.
MPS also suggested companies should no longer enjoy being a grey area between “platform” and “publisher” but face liability for what is published on their products, after the example of Germany, which has greater powers to fine technology companies for offensive material such as hate speech.
Germany’s Network Enforcement Act, sometimes known as the “Facebook Law”, came into force in January and requires companies to block obviously illegal content within strict deadlines or face fines of up to €50million.
A previous EU report covering 2017, measuring slightly different criteria, found the three companies responded to complaints within 24 hours in 77 per cent of cases on average.
Mark Zuckerberg faces pressure to abandon his dual role as chairman and chief executive after $199 billion was wiped off Facebook’s value on Thursday, the biggest one-day loss of value for any company in US market history.
Investors baulked after a series of scandals involving fake news, cyber bullying, terrorism recruitment and Mr Zuckerberg’s refusal to remove Holocaust denial from the platform.
Facebook has been forced to hire thousands of moderators to curb extremist content and has warned that the costs will eat at its bottom line.
MPS claimed that the existing legal framework was “no longer fit for purpose” and did not take into account the technology giants that have become prevalent in Britons’ day-to-day lives.
The report also suggested that the Competition and Market Authority be tasked with auditing Facebook, Twitter and Youtube for fake accounts or “bots”, which have been blamed for the rapid spread of fake news before the EU referendum and the US election.
Mr Collins said: “Companies like Facebook made it easy for developers to scrape user data and to deploy it in other campaigns without their knowledge or consent. Throughout our inquiry these companies have tried to frustrate scrutiny and obfuscated in their answers.
“The light of transparency must be allowed to shine on their operations and they must be made responsible, and liable, for the way in which harmful and misleading content is shared.”