Facebook, Google & Twitter pressed in parliament over hate speech
A tech triumvirate comprising Facebook, Google and Twitter has received a dressing down from members of the UK government’s Home Affairs select committee over their failure to protect their users from hate speech.
During a fiery hearing executives from the three social networks were told in no uncertain terms that they must ‘do a better job’ at policing their platforms, specifically by diverting more of their profits into silencing trolls.
Google has found itself in MPs' sights over its YouTube video platform, which regularly hosts a variety of content posted by extremist groups that can fund their activities to the tune of £6 per 1,000 views, as well as Google’s own coffers.
Labour MP Chuka Umunna remarked: “Now, there are not many business activities that somebody openly would have to come and admit… that they are making money and people who use their platform are making money out of hate. You, as an outfit, are not working nearly hard enough to deal with this.”
For its part Google insists it is working ‘very hard’ to stamp out such content and that the sums involved are ‘very small’.
Twitter meanwhile found itself berated for facilitating abusive tweets while Facebook found itself in the dock for hosting sexualized images of children.