Britain considers fining social media giants over extremist content

 

Former GCHQ Deputy Director of Intelligence and Cyber Operations Brian Lord on Monday said Britain should consider fining internet giants that fail to remove extremist content.

Lord said the current situation was "unsustainable" as the Manchester terror attack cast fresh light on the challenges that intelligence services face in tackling extremism online and through encrypted messaging apps.

British Prime Minister Theresa May has put security at the heart of her election campaign with a pledge to put pressure on social media firms, such as Facebook and Twitter, to target extremist measures online.

"I think when you have large organisations who provide ostensibly a public service to almost a quarter of the globe, I think those companies have to recognise that comes with a set of social responsibilities and not just an issue of profit," Lord said.

German-style system

The official explained that common ground needs to be found between the government's demands and what is feasible for providers to do. "I don't think the current position is sustainable," he added.

Ministers should consider a German-style system, where providers are fined millions of euros for failing to remove fake news from their sites, Lord said.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, the official said, "I think we should consider it but as with all these issues, social media is here to stay, and actually, it's just as incumbent on the organisations themselves to adjust their approach to this as well as the threat of fines.

In the aftermath of the Manchester suicide bombing attack, leaders of the G7 states – the US, the UK, Canada, Japan, France, Germany, and Italy – agreed on a package of measures to step up the fight against terror.

'Huge disruption'

Former Liberal Democratic leader Nick Clegg said he was sceptical about how encryption could be removed without a "huge disruption" to daily life.

Speaking on Today, Clegg commented, "It has become part of the fabric of our data-driven modern economy, and I think for ministers to keep saying, as they have done repeatedly, we are going to ban encryption, I just don't see how you could do so without causing huge disruption to the rest of the way we now conduct our daily lives.

In addition, he also raised another issue, saying that "a lot of these providers who provide this end-to-end encryption service are not even located in the United Kingdom, so I am not sure how it would be possible for us".

Clegg said it was "odd" to ban the technology when ministers and Conservative MPs use encrypted messaging apps, such as WhatsApp, to communicate with each other.