Julian Knight – who chairs the digital, culture, media and sport select committee in the Commons – said platforms such as Facebook need to come under a new regulatory framework and be held to account. His intervention comes as a row broke out yesterday (SAT) after Facebook placed a warning on an article by Professor Carl Heneghan, the director of the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine, and his colleague Dr Tom Jefferson, looking at a Danish study which questioned the use of masks. The piece was flagged “False information,” citing “independent fact-checkers”. The article was still possible to read once the warning had been clicked.
Oxford University academic Prof Heneghan tweeted in response: “Here’s what happened when I posted our latest @spectator article to Facebook – I’m aware this is happening to others – what has happened to academic freedom and freedom of speech?
“There is nothing in this article that is ‘false’.”
Dame Helena Morrisey, a Conservative member of the UK House of Lords, seconded the sentiment.
“This is a very dangerous direction of travel with respect to what science actually is; our freedom of expression, diversity of thought, and democratic norms, irrespective of what anyone thinks about Covid-19,” she tweeted in support of Heneghan.
Dr Tom Jefferson co-author of the article, said: “Do we want censorship in science or a free discussion in democracy?”
A major news website has also admitted to filtering out live streams because of concerns that the website would be downgraded.
A source from the website said: “Topics like coronavirus and lockdowns can cause issues as the social media companies are spooked by what they perceive to be ‘disinformation’.
“The social media giants are under increasing pressure to tackle this sort of thing and they are prepared to punish us as a result by removing us from their vital news index, something that has happened to us in recent weeks and caused issues with site traffic as a result.
“We therefore need to be on our best behaviour on Facebook to try to rectify this.”
Mr Knight said: “We are in a very difficult place. The problem is that there are no other arbiters other than the social media companies.
“I don’t want [Facebook boss] Mark Zuckerberg or other social media executives to decide what is in my news feed.
“What we need is proper online harm legislation which provides a level playing field for the print media and ensures that social media platforms are properly regulated in making decisions like this.”
A major news website has also admitted to filtering out live streams because of concerns that the website would be downgraded.
A source from the website said: “Topics like coronavirus and lockdowns can cause issues as the social media companies are spooked by what they perceive to be ‘disinformation’.
“The social media giants are under increasing pressure to tackle this sort of thing and they are prepared to punish us as a result by removing us from their vital news index, something that has happened to us in recent weeks and caused issues with site traffic as a result.
“We therefore need to be on our best behaviour on Facebook to try to rectify this.”
Mr Knight said: “We are in a very difficult place. The problem is that there are no other arbiters other than the social media companies.
“I don’t want [Facebook boss] Mark Zuckerberg or other social media executives to decide what is in my news feed.
“What we need is proper online harm legislation which provides a level playing field for the print media and ensures that social media platforms are properly regulated in making decisions like this.”
The issue also blew up in the late stages of the US election where allegations about Democrat nominee Joe Biden’s son and the former vice president were briefly blocked on Twitter.
African American Republican Candace Owens has announced that she will sue Facebook over its “fact check” site which has quoted articles she claims are defamatory.
The row over alleged social media bias saw Mr Zuckerberg and Twitter’s Jack Dorsey hauled before a Senate committee last week.
Mr Zuckerberg said there needed to be changes to the law in the US.
He admitted that the growing debate “shows that people of all political persuasions are unhappy with the status quo.”
