A British parliament report about the failure of social media companies to weed out malicious and bilious content confirms everything we know so far, but didn’t know what to do. The report has found that social media firms are putting profit before the safety and security of hundreds of millions of their users and are reluctant to take corrective measures, and as a punishment, calls for imposing fines of tens of millions of dollars on these tech-media giants to force them to mend their behavior and remove extremist and hate crime material.
The findings came in a report by the Commons home affairs committee. The inquiry was launched last year following the murder of the Labour MP Jo Cox by a far-right gunman which shocked the nation. In a scathing indictment, Yvette Cooper, the Labour MP who chairs the home affairs committee, said: “Social media companies’ failure to deal with illegal and dangerous material online is a disgrace.”
The committee says that this failure is the product of a deliberate unwillingness to act rather than the result of an inability or difficulty caused by the enormity of the task. For example, the report says prompt action is taken to remove content found to violate copyright rules, while a cavalier approach is adopted when it involves hateful or illegal content.
The Commons home affairs committee report is important for many reasons. It comes at a time when tech giants are under increasing pressure over fake news and other such pernicious social media phenomena, which have contributed to creating an atmosphere of hate and racism in all societies, leading to the rise of anti-immigrant and far-right parties. Secondly, it shows that governments are increasingly sensitive about the negative role of social media companies in creating law and order problems and in destroying the current social and religious harmony.
The day is not far when governments will start cracking the whip. For example, in Germany, the justice ministry has proposed imposing penalties of up to €50m on social media companies that are slow to remove harmful content. Thirdly, social media giants like Facebook and Google are being forced to own up the filth their businesses are producing. Their argument of being just a platform for communication with no control of what is being communicated is dangerous hogwash which will not be bought by their users and governments.
Google, Facebook and Twitter have told the MPs in the probe team that they are reviewing how violent videos and objectionable material can be controlled. But these assurances must be backed by serious and sincere action.
