‘Don’t let web giants police news’: Peers are urged to exempt media from upcoming online safety laws
- Lords communications and digital committee told of concerns by news chiefs
- Peers also called on to exempt news outlets from upcoming online safety laws
- Government Bill would see ‘lawful but harmful’ content removed from websites
- But there are concerns this could lead to legitimate journalism being removed
Online media giants should not have powers to police news on the internet, newspaper chiefs told peers yesterday.
The executives have called for an exemption from forthcoming online safety legislation for news organisations. It comes amid concerns internet platforms are not qualified to make editorial decisions about what news content the public should read.
A Government Bill will mean that US internet giants will have to remove content that is judged ‘lawful but harmful’ or face large fines.
Online media giants should not have powers to police news on the internet, newspaper chiefs told peers yesterday (stock image)
But there are deep concerns about how they will implement this amid fears legitimate journalism could be hauled off the internet.
The Lords communications and digital committee heard concerns about how Google, Facebook and Twitter police news content.
These include worries that, in a bid to avoid getting fined, companies will put in place over-restrictive algorithms which damage freedom of expression. It follows Twitter and Facebook removing stories, sparking censorship fears.
Peter Wright, editor emeritus of DMG Media, which publishes the Daily Mail, told peers no one had yet explained what ‘lawful but harmful’ meant, but it could include any challenge to Government policy.
The Lords communications and digital committee heard concerns about how Google, Facebook and Twitter police news content (stock image)
He added: ‘I’m not sure Google and Facebook have either the skills or the right incentives to make wise decisions on this matter.’
He insisted: ‘I think the only way to achieve this effectively is that the legislation has to include a complete exemption for trusted journalism, backed by penalties if it’s breached. I’m afraid what is going to happen – and the only way that the platforms are going to be able to discharge their duty of care – is by using their algorithms.
‘There are very large problems surrounding algorithms.’ He said they were ‘blunt instruments’ used by platforms to ‘further their own commercial purposes and even we suspect sometimes their political purposes’.
Guardian Media Group’s Matt Rogerson said there should be a presumption the platforms should not decide whether a piece of journalism should be taken down.