Facebook can't be left alone to deal with fake news and hate speech, Nick Clegg claims
Facebook needs an independent oversight board and shouldn’t be left alone to fix issues of hate speech, fake news and harmful content on its service, according to Sir Nick Clegg.
The former deputy Prime Minister, who now heads Facebook’s global affairs team, claimed that there was a “pressing need” to introduce new “rules of the road” to determine appropriate use of user data, as well as what counts as hate speech.
“It’s not for private companies, however big or small, to come up with those rules. It is for democratic politicians in the democratic world to do so,” he said in an interview with the BBC.
Sir Nick added that the likes of Facebook need to take on a “mature role” by promoting the need for regulation, instead of dismissing it and continuing to suffer from the same problems.
His comments come after Britain said it will make social media bosses personally liable for harmful content and shut down offending platforms under a "world-leading" government plan.
Coming in for heavy criticism over the past year, Facebook has instituted changes, particularly on privacy and the transparency of political campaign ads.
These internal changes were highlighted by the former deputy prime minister, who said it was a “matter of minutes” before the first video of the Christchurch shooting in New Zealand were removed.
However, the video had been on a livestream for 29 minutes before being flagged, allowing at least 1.5m replica videos to emerge. Around 1.2m were removed before being uploaded.
The former politician also rejected any suggestion that Facebook was used to influence the outcome of Brexit, claiming there was “absolutely no evidence” of Russian involvement in the run-up to the EU referendum.
“Much though I understand why people want to sort of reduce that eruption in British politics to some kind of plot or conspiracy - or some use of new social media through opaque means - I’m afraid the roots of British Euroscepticism go very, very deep,” he said.
He claimed attitudes had been influenced far more by "traditional media" over the past four decades than by new media.
Echoing Nick Clegg's comments, Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg has called for "globally harmonised" online regulation.
Earlier this year, he revealed that Facebook is setting up an 'independent supreme court' to police its content.
The board will have 40 members, drawn from different disciplines and areas of the world. The first 40 will be chosen by Facebook; thereafter new members will be appointed by the board itself.
They won't be involved in setting Facebook's rules, but only interpreting them, as well as recommending changes. Notably, their decisions also will not trump any national laws, which Facebook is committed to following in all the countries where it operates.
Critics say Facebook is seeking to buy time amid calls for tougher regulation in the United States and elsewhere - with some calls to break up major tech firms and other activists questioning whether they should maintain immunity from liability for content posted by users.
