DEMOCRACY is at risk unless regulators tackle a crisis caused by the manipulation of data to target people wiith fake news, MPs have said.
A damning report from the digital, culture, media, and sport (DCMS) committee accused tech companies such as Facebook of profiting from disinformation hosted on their sites.
The report suggested the Electoral Commission and Information Commissioner's Office should investigate the ethics of Facebook and other relevant social media companies in the use of targeted adverts for political campaigning during elections and referenda.
The MPs criticised companies for failing to take responsibility for their actions and for “time and again” refusing to co-operate fully with the authorities.
Facebook, in particular, was told by the committee to "take more responsibility" after the report said the social media platform is refusing to accept it even has a role in preventing illegal election activity.
Two of the scores of pro-Brexit adverts which Facebook distributed to UK voters during the 2016 referendum
And it again challenged Facebook supremo Mark Zuckerberg to face the committee to answer questions about the platform's performance, having previously declined an appearance.
While accepting that electoral law is "not fit for purpose for the digital age" the committee said all electronic campaigning should have easily accessible digital imprint requirements including information on the publishing organisation and who is legally responsbile for the spending.
They recommended that the government change the law to make social media platforms legally responsible for harmful and illegal content on their platforms.
READ MORE: Facebook to alert users affected by Cambridge Analytica data breach
And it suggested that the Electoral Commission's maximum fine limit of £20,000 should be changed to a larger penalty based on a fixed percentage of the turnover of companies or organisations who break the rules on political campaigning.
At present this would not apply to social media platforms - as at present the Electoral Commission can only take action against political parties and campaigners.
Claire Bassett, the chief executive of the Electoral Commission had said the current maximum fine was described as “the cost of doing business” for some individuals and organisations and was too low.
It suggested that The Information Commissioner's Office, the data regulator, should be better funded to help it become more of a sheriff of the internet wild west.
READ MORE: Facebook to probe ‘tens of thousands’ of apps, says Mark Zuckerberg
The report said: "Our democracy is at risk, and now is the time to act, to protect our shared values and the integrity of our democratic institutions."
The details came from a verson of the report which was leaked by the former Vote Leave campaign strategist Dominic Cummings before its official publication on Sunday.
Mr Cummings, who is facing censure from parliament after he refused a summons to attend one of the committee’s hearings, said the report “knowingly/incompetently makes false claims” and insisted the report was littered with “errors and misunderstandings about the legal framework for elections”.
Other recommendations included the imposition of a limit on how much an individual can give to a political campaign, following Arron Banks’ substantial funding of the pro-Brexit Leave.EU group.
Facebook is expected to welcome the report’s findings, and say it agrees that electoral rule changes are needed.
It is expected to point out that it already complies with many of the proposed regulations, and is planning to authenticate and label political ads in the UK and create an archive of those ads that anyone can search.
The committee also called for a ban on the term “fake news” in future proceedings saying it was “bandied around with no clear idea of what it means, or agreed definition”.
“The term has taken on a variety of meanings, including a description of any statement that is not liked or agreed with by the reader,” the MPs said. “We recommend that the government rejects the term ‘fake news’, and instead puts forward an agreed definition of the words ‘misinformation’ and ‘disinformation’.”
The report details came as the committee provided a new glimpse behind the curtain of Facebook’s unregulated ad platform by publishing data on scores of pro-Brexit adverts which it distributed to UK voters during the 2016 referendum on European Union membership.
The ads were run on behalf of several vote leave campaigns who paid a third company to use Facebook’s ad targeting tools.
The targeting of the ads was carried out on Facebook’s platform by AggregateIQ, a Canadian data firm that has been linked to Cambridge Analytica/SCL - the political consultancy at the centre of a huge data misuse storm.
Aggregate IQ is now under joint investigation by Canadian data watchdogs.
But in 2016 the data firm was paid £3.5m by a number of Brexit supporting campaigns to spend on targeted social media advertising using Facebook as the primary conduit.
Some adverts displayed the controversial claims about spending the £350m a week that the UK send to the EU on the NHS.
They also feature immigration fear messages questioning why certain countries were allowed to be in the EU and stressed the needs to control borders.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel