{"id":183870,"date":"2019-02-18T14:00:47","date_gmt":"2019-02-18T14:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=183870"},"modified":"2019-02-21T07:24:21","modified_gmt":"2019-02-21T07:24:21","slug":"facebook-labelled-digital-gangsters-by-report-on-fake-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=183870","title":{"rendered":"Facebook labelled &#8216;digital gangsters&#8217; by report on fake news"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\">David Pegg \u2013 The Guardian Feb 18, 2019<\/h1>\n<div id=\"attachment_129651\" style=\"width: 550px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-129651\" class=\"wp-image-129651\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/merkel-zuckerberg.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"540\" height=\"360\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-129651\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg with Angela Merkel. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Facebook deliberately broke privacy and competition law and should urgently be subject to statutory regulation, according to a devastating parliamentary report denouncing the company and its executives as \u201cdigital gangsters\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">The final report of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee\u2019s 18-month investigation into disinformation and fake news accused Facebook of purposefully obstructing its inquiry and failing to tackle attempts by Russia to manipulate elections.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">\u201cDemocracy is at risk from the malicious and relentless targeting of citizens with disinformation and personalised \u2018dark adverts\u2019 from unidentifiable sources, delivered through the major social media platforms we use every day,\u201d warned the committee\u2019s chairman, Damian Collins.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">The report:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Accuses <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/mark-zuckerberg\">Mark Zuckerberg<\/a>, Facebook\u2019s co-founder and chief executive, of contempt for parliament in refusing three separate demands for him to give evidence, instead sending junior employees unable to answer the committee\u2019s questions.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Warns British electoral law is unfit for purpose and vulnerable to interference by hostile foreign actors, including agents of the Russian government attempting to discredit democracy.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Calls on the British government to establish an independent investigation into \u201cforeign influence, disinformation, funding, voter manipulation and the sharing of data\u201d in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, the 2016 EU referendum and the 2017 general election.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Labour moved quickly to endorse the committee\u2019s findings, with the party\u2019s deputy leader, Tom Watson, announcing: \u201cLabour agrees with the committee\u2019s ultimate conclusion \u2013 the era of self-regulation for tech companies must end immediately.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">\u201cWe need new independent regulation with a tough powers and sanctions regime to curb the worst excesses of surveillance capitalism and the forces trying to use technology to subvert our democracy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">The culture secretary, Jeremy Wright, who is to meet Zuckerberg this week to discuss harms resulting from social media, will likely come under pressure to raise the committee\u2019s concerns with the Facebook chief executive directly.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Launched in 2017 as concern grew about the influence of false information and its ability to spread unscrutinised on social media, the inquiry was turbocharged in March the following year, with the <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/news\/2018\/mar\/17\/cambridge-analytica-facebook-influence-us-election\">Cambridge Analytica data-harvesting scandal<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">The Observer revealed the company had secretly acquired data harvested from millions of Facebook users\u2019 profiles and was selling its insights to political clients to allow them to more effectively manipulate potential voters. The company has since <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/uk-news\/2018\/may\/02\/cambridge-analytica-closing-down-after-facebook-row-reports-say\">collapsed into administration<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">The committee argues that, had Facebook abided by the terms of an agreement <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ftc.gov\/news-events\/press-releases\/2011\/11\/facebook-settles-ftc-charges-it-deceived-consumers-failing-keep\">struck with US regulators<\/a> in 2011 to limit developers\u2019 access to user data, the scandal would not have occurred. \u201cThe Cambridge Analytica scandal was facilitated by Facebook\u2019s policies,\u201d it concludes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">The 108-page report makes excoriating reading for the social media giant, which is accused of continuing to prioritise shareholders\u2019 profits over users\u2019 privacy rights.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">\u201cFacebook continues to choose profit over data security, taking risks in order to prioritise their aim of making money from user data,\u201d the report states, accusing the company of covering up leaks of user data. \u201cIt seems clear to us that Facebook acts only when serious breaches become public.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Zuckerberg is also personally criticised by the committee in scathing terms, with his claim that Facebook has never sold user data dismissed by the report as \u201csimply untrue\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">\u201cMark Zuckerberg continually fails to show the levels of leadership and personal responsibility that should be expected from someone who sits at the top of one of the world\u2019s biggest companies,\u201d Collins added in a statement.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Watson agreed. \u201cFew individuals have shown contempt for our parliamentary democracy in the way Mark Zuckerberg has,\u201d he said. \u201cIf one thing is uniting politicians of all colours during this difficult time for our country, it is our determination to bring him and his company into line.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">The report warns Facebook is using its market dominance to crush rivals, shutting them out of its systems to prevent them from competing with Facebook or its subsidiaries.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">The committee also released new <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.parliament.uk\/documents\/commons-committees\/culture-media-and-sport\/Further-selected-documents-ordered-from-Six4Three-Feb19.pdf\">internal Facebook documents<\/a> obtained from the company\u2019s legal dispute with the company Six4Three, which it said \u201chighlights the link between friends\u2019 data and the financial value of the developers\u2019 relationship with Facebook\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">\u201cCompanies like Facebook should not be allowed to behave like \u2018digital gangsters\u2019 in the online world, considering themselves to be ahead of and beyond the law,\u201d the report warns.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">In a distinctly measured response, Facebook said it was \u201cpleased to have made a significant contribution\u201d to the committee\u2019s investigation. \u201cWe are open to meaningful regulation and support the committee\u2019s recommendation for electoral law reform,\u201d said Karim Palant, the company\u2019s UK public policy manager.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">\u201cWe have already made substantial changes so that every political ad on Facebook has to be authorised, state who is paying for it and then is stored in a searchable archive for seven years.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Palant said Facebook supported privacy legislation, and that \u201cwhile we still have more to do, we are not the same company we were a year ago\u201d. He said Facebook had increased its team working on abusive content to 30,000 people and invested in machine learning and artificial intelligence to tackle the problem.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">The DCMS report calls for sites such as Facebook to be brought under regulatory control, arguing \u201csocial media companies cannot hide behind the claim of being merely a \u2018platform\u2019 and maintain that they have no responsibility themselves in regulating the content of their sites\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">It proposes comprehensive new regulations, including a mandatory code of ethics and an independent regulator empowered to bring legal proceedings against social media companies and force them to hand over user data.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">It cites the example of Germany, which passed a law in January 2018 forcing tech companies to remove hate speech within 24 hours or face a \u20ac20m (\u00a317.5m) fine. As a result, it claims, one in six of Facebook\u2019s moderators work in Germany.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">It also warns electoral law is out of date and vulnerable to manipulation by hostile forces, with urgent need of updating. \u201cWe need reform so that the same principles of transparency of political communications apply online, just as they do in the real world,\u201d Collins said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/2019\/feb\/18\/facebook-fake-news-investigation-report-regulation-privacy-law-dcms\">Source <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Devastating parliamentary report accuses Facebook of \u201crelentless targeting of citizens with disinformation and personalised \u2018dark adverts\u2019 from unidentifiable sources\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[61,42,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-183870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Commentary","category-controlling-the-news-andor-the-free-exchange-of-ideas-and-information","category-The_Media"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=183870"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183870\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":183874,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183870\/revisions\/183874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=183870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=183870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=183870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}