{"id":7205,"date":"2019-02-06T22:25:15","date_gmt":"2019-02-06T22:25:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/labour-call-to-break-up-digital-giants-to-protect-users\/"},"modified":"2019-02-06T22:25:15","modified_gmt":"2019-02-06T22:25:15","slug":"labour-call-to-break-up-digital-giants-to-protect-users","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/labour-call-to-break-up-digital-giants-to-protect-users\/","title":{"rendered":"Labour call to break up digital giants to protect users"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n
<\/p>\n

\"TomImage copyright<\/span>
\n PA<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

Digital media giants too often choose ad sales over accuracy and “profit from children rather than protect them”, says Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson. <\/p>\n

A Labour government would create a new regulator with the power to break up tech firms if they did not curb harmful content, he said in a speech.<\/p>\n

He admitted this would not be easy because they are global companies.<\/p>\n

But he said the current regulatory regime was too weak and fragmented to deal with the “crisis” in data abuse.<\/p>\n

Mr Watson, who is also Labour’s shadow digital minister, says companies like Facebook and Google are able to achieve “data monopolies” by swallowing up smaller rivals.<\/p>\n

This, he feels, creates a huge “imbalance of power” between the firms and the people who use their services.<\/p>\n

“Each year, businesses make billions by extracting and monetising personal data from each and every one of us.<\/p>\n

“And, yes, they offer us a service in return. But only worth a fraction of the fortune they gain.<\/p>\n

“This is surveillance capitalism. The power dynamic between platforms and users has long been lopsided.”<\/p>\n

\n
\n <\/p>\n

Media playback is unsupported on your device<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>

Media caption<\/span>After Molly Russell took her own life, her family discovered distressing material about suicide on her Instagram account<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He was talking in reference to the death of Molly Russell, 14, whose family found she had viewed content on social media linked to anxiety, depression, self-harm and suicide before taking her own life in November 2017.<\/p>\n

“This is the kind of harm online content can contribute to when the right safeguards are not in place, a consequence of an industry that too often chooses to profit from children, rather than protect them.”<\/p>\n

The government is working on new laws to force digital companies to take down content judged to be harmful more quickly.<\/p>\n

Culture Minister Margot James warned on Tuesday they would face new legislation unless they do more to protect their users from content promoting suicide and self-harm.<\/p>\n

“Social media companies have always enjoyed legal protection from liability for user generated content and this laissez-faire environment has led some companies to pursue growth and profitability with little regard for the security and interests of their users,” said Ms James.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Image copyright<\/span>
\n PA<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>

Image caption<\/span>
\n
\n Margot James is promising new legislation to curb harmful content
\n <\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

She said the government would “soon” be publishing an “online harms White Paper”, which would be followed by a consultation on new laws. <\/p>\n

Mr Watson said Labour would consider backing any moves to reclassify social media firms as publishers, meaning they are legally responsible for the content that appears on their platforms.<\/p>\n

But he said the government appeared unwilling to take the tough action he says is needed to curb data abuse.<\/p>\n

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “An army of lobbyists and lawyers have made sure these big data monopolies have slipped through the cracks of regulation.<\/p>\n

“So we say we need a new regulator to deal with it.”<\/p>\n

Under Labour’s plans, the existing bodies tasked with policing online content, from the Advertising Standards Authority to the Information Commissioner, would hand over to a new watchdog.<\/p>\n

This would have the power to levy large fines and, if necessary, break up the social media companies.<\/p>\n

Mr Watson said he “did not have all the answers” and it would be “very hard” to take action against global companies, but it was a challenge that had to be met.<\/p>\n

In his speech, Labour’s deputy leader also restated the party’s pledge to introduce a digital bill of rights and a legal duty of care to give more powers and protections to consumers.<\/p>\n

And he suggested new rules be introduced to protect democracy from subversion online, with a set of so-called “digital democracy guarantees”.<\/p>\n

“Too many platforms choose ad sales over accuracy, clickbait over credibility.<\/p>\n

“We will work with civil society groups to cultivate public knowledge about disinformation, and we will deliver media literacy across our education system to support the next generation of voters.”<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


\n
Source<\/a> by [author_name]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Image copyright PA Digital media giants too often choose ad sales over accuracy and “profit from children rather than protect them”, says Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson. A Labour government would create a new regulator with the power to break up tech firms if they did not curb harmful content, he said in a speech. … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":7206,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7205\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}