Mal Fletcher reports on the issues surrounding censorship in social media.



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Over the past decade, large new media companies have proven woefully ineffective in carrying out substantial internal reforms. Recently, two of the groups that had provided fact-checking services to Facebook, Snopes and Associated Press, pulled out of the relationship because they said they were simply being used as crisis PR for Facebook.

The company, they said, didn't care about the problem of false reporting, it only cared about its image. A recent report from a British parliamentary select committee reflected a similar sentiment in relation to data breaches. It said that despite government warnings, Facebook continues to place profit above data security.

The same can perhaps be said about Facebook and other social media sites when it comes to violent or anti-social content.

Large social media companies love to claim that they're still the maverick pioneers in the wild-west internet. They are, however, multi-national corporations.

More than that, they are becoming the news curators, the editors, publishers and producers of our time. This contributes to their enormous profitability, with news operating as click bait, drawing eyes to advertising content. News also boosts their data-collection services, which provide a major income stream.

If they want to continue to profit from being preferred news sources, social media companies should accept the concomitant social responsibility.

We cannot expect social media platforms to predict the behaviour of their users. We can and should, however, expect them to react quickly, firmly and decisively when their sites are used to promote violence, murder or incitement.

We must demand that they use a larger proportion of their enormous profits to provide a more proactive approach to blocking violent content at the point of delivery. We must require that they take down such content immediately it appears.

If they don't, we might despair for the future of the internet and of Tim Berners-Lee's creation. CR

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.