John Swinney has written to social media giants to tell them ‘immediate action’ must be taken to crack down on disinformation and racism on their websites following concerns it has exacerbated tensions in other parts of the country.
The First Minister sent a letter to X, TikTok and Meta – which owns Instagram and Facebook – and revealed police chiefs in Scotland have raised concerns at the length of time it takes the companies to remove ‘problematic’ posts.
Mr Swinney met with Police Scotland and faith leaders earlier this week amid fears the disorder witnessed in England and Northern Ireland could spread to Scotland.
There have been no far-right demonstrations, or counter protests, in Scotland as yet, though anti-racism protests are planned in a number of Scottish cities.
Read More:
- John Swinney demands crackdown on 'dangerous' social media disinformation amid riots
-
Scottish Labour MP says many people share Humza Yousaf's safety fears
The First Minister told social media bosses: “It is clear to me that social media platforms have a duty to take action to ensure that individuals in our society are not subjected to hate and threatening behaviour, and that communities are protected from violent disorder.”
He added: “Everyone has a role in stopping the spread of misinformation. You and your platform have a specific responsibility to do so.”
The social media giants have been told to set out how they are combating racist and hateful speech spread across the platforms, with Mr Swinney adding: “Given the seriousness of the situation, action needs to be immediate and decisive.”
Pressure has been growing on social media giants in recent days, with former Scottish first minister Humza Yousaf describing X, formerly Twitter, owner Elon Musk as “one of the most dangerous men” on the planet at a talk in Edinburgh on Thursday.
Digital Ofcom watchdogs also wrote to social media bosses to remind them of their obligation to remove dangerous communication.
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