Tomorrow, the European Commission will host a colloquium in Brussels on the issue of “fake news”, which will see the participation of experts and industry representatives. This is very likely another step toward legislative intervention, which could come in the form of a Recommendation from the EC. Assembly have created a 'Fake News Tracker' which shows how policymakers from a number of different countries are treating misinformation as a top priority. Some countries have already taken action, while others are about to do so. Industry is starting to respond to regulatory and political pressure in some specific areas, such as detecting fake accounts and helping users distinguish reliable information from misinformation. However, it is also clear that more needs to be done in areas such as political advertising, and, crucially, against the problem of addiction, which is increasingly becoming a talking point and could trigger further legislation.
Regulators and policy makers are making misinformation and hate speech a top priority
Until recently the talk of regulating social media platforms mostly referred to rules around privacy and data protection, an area these companies have been scrutinised for for some time now. Assembly’s Fake News Tracker finds that more rules are on the horizon in a bid to prevent the dissemination of misinformation and hate speech, and that legislators are likely to address this more quickly than they did with privacy.
Driven by the political power’s willingness to reduce the risk of foreign interference in domestic matters, several hearings of social media representatives have taken place in recent months, especially in the UK and the US. However, these are not the only countries where something is happening. Germany has already passed a law to make companies accountable; and a legislative proposal is likely to come out of France in the coming weeks. The EC too is carrying out an extensive initiative and has just closed a consultation on the matter. It has also appointed an Expert Group with the task to produce a report by the Spring of 2018. A Recommendation on the topic is likely to be the result of all this work.
Platforms have taken some time in responding, but they are now starting to listen to concerns
While social media platforms have been initially reluctant to admit there is problem of how misinformation spreads through their networks, they have more recently realised the need to take action. Legislation seems inevitable if they do not show proactive engagement with the issue. Facebook, Twitter, and Google have all started to take measures; so far, they have mainly engaged with the growing problem of bots and fake accounts, which have been spreading false information in recent elections in the US and the UK. Twitter has been proactive in deploying technology to help solve the problem, and claimed it deleted approximately 300,000 accounts linked to terrorism and hate speech in the first half of 2017 alone. Facebook also maintains it is engaging in ways to improve its detection and removal of fake accounts.
Fact checking is also something around which policymakers are keen to hold social media to account, as shown by the questions asked during hearings of the UK Parliament’s DCMS committee. Facebook and Google have made the most progress here. On the other hand, Twitter’s position is still that the platform ensures an easy way to distinguish truthful information from falsity, which has resulted in the company taking no specific steps to address this issue.
Social networks need to do much more about transparency in political advertising, and against addiction
Companies have started moving, but much more needs to be done with regard to how social media keep track of advertising for political purposes. Traditional media are generally under obligations to deny advertising spaces to foreign purchasers, in order to minimise the risk of foreign influences on elections. This currently does not apply to social media platforms. However, pressure on social media is mounting to ensure foreign buyers do not fund political advertising. Policymakers are currently not satisfied with platforms’ way of handling this issue; companies are starting to recognise the problem, and will have to act promptly to avoid legislative intervention.
Addiction to social media is also starting to become a major talking point. This area is likely to become one of the focuses of future legislation, although there is currently no precise indication of what action will be taken to tackle concerns here. Criticism is coming not only from law makers, but also from current and previous investors and executives of these businesses. While these companies understandably aim to maximise user engagement to increase their advertising revenues, they also need to take action before facing rules similar to those enforced on “cigarette companies”, to use the words of Salesforce’s CEO Marc Benioff at the recent World Economic Forum. Even Apple has criticised the addictive nature of social media, and pledged to strengthen parental control on devices to discourage young people’s intensive use of these platforms.
