Peer: social media firms will testify on trolling of MPs
FACEBOOK and Twitter will be ordered to give evidence for an official inquiry into MP intimidation after claims they have failed to remove abusive messages.
Lord Bew, the cross-bench peer tasked by Theresa May to investigate, uses his first interview today to announce he will call on social media companies to explain their actions and will consider what can be done to stop trolls anonymously abusing politicians, as seen during the last general election.
In a dire warning, he told The Sunday Telegraph the “threat culture” developing in British politics is reminiscent of Northern Ireland during The Troubles – which he experienced first hand.
And he fears that there could be another MP attack a year on from the murder of Labour’s Jo Cox unless the “personal menace” directed towards politicians is eradicated.
“For all the many failures of the political system, we have one great achievement, which is the culture of relative civility,” Lord Bew says. “That’s what is at stake now. We have learnt to do politics without killing people in this country for centuries. This is something not to be neglected, it must be protected at all costs.”
Mrs May announced this week that Lord Bew, who heads the independent Committee on Standards in Public Life, would lead a review into MP intimidation during the election after an investigation by this newspaper revealed the death threats, personal attacks and family intimidation Tory candidates faced on the campaign trail.
MPs have since gone public with claims that social media companies failed to take down online abuse despite them flagging the messages.
A Facebook spokesman said it had a “comprehensive reporting system in place” while a Twitter source defended their firm’s procedures for acting on abusive messages.
Lord Bew said social media companies must be questioned on their role in online hate.
“There’s no question we have to talk to Facebook and Twitter,” he says. “We have to explore every possible avenue and see if anything can be done to tackle the scale of the problem.”
A historian by training, Lord Bew knows all too well the impact a “threat culture” in politics can have from his close involvement in the Northern Irish peace process.
He received death threats when acting as adviser to Lord Trimble, the Ulster Unionist Party leader, during talks that led to the Good Friday Agreement. “It really does shake you up,” he says.
Since then, having been given a peerage and tasked with advising the Prime Minister on ethics, Lord Bew fears a return of the political intolerance – if not the paramilitary violence – that defined Northern Irish politics for decades.
“I think the element which is most striking is that of personal menace,” he says of the threats and insults targeted at MPs today. “It is designed to make the person feel not that their opinions are open to challenge or vigorously disliked by a large numbers of people, but that they themselves are worthless and should watch their step. That’s the characteristic of the Northern Ireland link.”
He also fears that “unnerving” rhetoric creates the climate in which attacks such as the murder of Jo Cox can emerge. “In most cases, political violence emerges from a context, and the context is of extremist language and debate becoming commonplace … that is the danger. That’s where we are.”
The peer says he hopes to complete his review by Christmas, but is reluctant to set a strict deadline. FASHION magazine US Vogue has apologised to the singer Zayn Malik and his girlfriend, the model Gigi Hadid, after it claimed the couple were “embracing gender fluidity”.
The magazine admitted “missing the mark” in response to the couple saying they borrowed each other’s clothes.
US Vogue interviewed Malik, 24, and Hadid, 22, for an article in its August issue. Hadid was quoted as telling Malik, “I shop in your closet all the time.” To which Malik then revealed that he borrowed a T-shirt, adding: “I like that shirt. And if it’s tight on me, so what? It doesn’t matter if it was made for a girl.”
Hadid replies: “Totally. It’s not about gender. It’s about, like, shapes. And what feels good on you that day.”
The exchange prompted the author, Vogue writer Maya Singer, to comment that for many young people “gender is a more or less arbitrary distraction”. “This new blasé attitude toward gender codes marks a radical break,” she added. “For these millennials, at least, descriptives like boy or girl rank pretty low on the list of important qualities – and the way they dress reflects that.”
Readers said neither Singer nor Vogue understood the terms “gender fluid” and “gender fluidity”. Jacob Tobia, an LBGTQ rights activist who identifies as gender-fluid, said: “Let me spell it out for you: Unlike how this new Vogue cover shoot presents it, the lived experience of being gender-nonconforming is rarely fun and glamorous. Quite frankly, it can be a harrowing experience.”
A Vogue spokeswoman said: “The story was intended to highlight the impact the gender-fluid, non-binary communities have had on fashion and culture. We are very sorry the story did not correctly reflect that spirit – we missed the mark.”