According to the Guardian:
Democracy is at risk unless the government and regulators take urgent action to combat a growing crisis of data manipulation, disinformation and so-called fake news, a parliamentary committee is expected to say.
In damning conclusions to a report leaked by former Vote Leave campaign strategist Dominic Cummings before its official publication on Sunday, the digital, culture, media and sport (DCMS) committee adds to the growing calls for tougher government regulation of social media companies. It accuses them of profiting from misleading material and raises concerns about Russian involvement in British politics.
I cannot disagree about democracy being at risk. It is. Nor can I dispute that the issues that they raise are important. But let me also be clear: they're not the big issue.
There are big issues that threaten our democracy that need higher priority than tackling social media companies.
Campaign funding is one such issue.
And enforcing the rules is another.
With the requirement that those winning inappropriately be barred from office and that elections be re-run.
Then there is party funding, which needs to be by the state.
And funding for parliament and its work - where MP committees are chronically underfunded - needs to be reformed.
Whilst we're at it, we need 650 MPs.
We do not need 800 Lords. In fact we don't need the Lords at all. We need a second, regionally elected chamber of members with long terms, but time limited service.
We do need proportional representation.
We need a constitution.
And a Bill of Rights.
We need ministers who respect parliament.
We need an elected head of state.
We need limits on the Crown prerogative.
We need law on referenda.
We need to revive local authorities.
We need devolution to be respected.
And the hotch potch of laws on mayors needs reform: these look horribly like fiefdoms.
We need freedom of speech. Including for charities. They are now denied it.
We need strong trade union laws: civil society is part of our democracy.
I could go on.
But I hope you get my point. Democracy is under threat. But not just from social media. MPs should be looking closer to home for some of the problems we face.
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Compared to Harold Macmillan and Anthony Eden this lot are amateurs. As for the Constitution, I recall Attlee saying much of the same things in 1951 when he was in our town to give a speech. Wilson, too, was all for urgent reforms, until he became Prime Minister. It has been a long wait.
Agree with ALL of this. You are not alone. Perhaps the English exceptionalists will only be persuaded by actual disaster and the sound of people with pitchforks coming for them? Similar story in America.
The elite are loosing there strangle hold on information this assists rather than impedes democracy .
The present bad behaviour of many who are ignored by the MSM is the very reason people
find information elsewhere.
The BBC is so biased in its delivery ( Pro Israel not Pro Jewish. Pro Tory Anti Labour ) people are seeking truths elsewhere.
The Business of London is to enslave the rest of Britain. Scotland Wales, and England will reject this and if London wants to remain the capital of Britain they need to change and meet the needs of the people.
False news is propaganda (ADVERTISING) this can be regulated only by public vote.
“The BBC is so biased in its delivery ( Pro Israel not Pro Jewish. Pro Tory Anti Labour ) people are seeking truths elsewhere.”
Not just in their delivery, they are now attempting to close down any dissenting voices.They have started with Youtube. What next? Twitte? Blogs? Any website that questions the state? Or how about this one? How long before Taxresearch disappears?
https://wingsoverscotland.com/the-state-flexes-its-muscles.
I’m not planning to go anywhere soon….
These actions by the BBC sound most sinister. Can a legal action be started? I would subscribe and I am sure that via a crowdfunding appeal the legal costs could be found.
We need something to control the undue influence that some ‘institutes’ and ‘think tanks’ have on opinion. Of course they have a right to their opinion but it should be made clear that it is just opinion. Where ‘our research shows…’ is used the host outlet should be required to check this research. Additionally information about the funding of these bodies should be made clear when it has a relevance to the ‘research’ that they are citing.
This post has been brought to you by the Slaine McRoth Institute for Total Cobblers.
It should be stated at least who the sponsors of the think tank are; I’m thinking particularly of the Institute of Economic Affairs and the Taxpayers’ Alliance here
Another vote of support from me.
All eminently sensible and long overdue including Slaine McRoth’s point.
And to that list I’d add fee-paying schools. The cronyism of mediocrities like Cameron and many others has done the UK no favours. Funny that so many institutions, big businesses, the judiciary, the arts, the civil service, journalism – to name just few – are stuffed to the gunnels with ex-public school boys & girls and Oxbridge graduates way beyond their representation in society as a whole.
But like so many on the list of things that subvert democracy politicians have huffed and puffed for years and done nothing. Wonder why?
The current witch hunt against social media needs to be considered very carefully. And regarded with the deepest suspicion.
Logically it is only the ‘establishment’ which is threatened by social media.
Since for ever the establishment has controlled the ‘impartial’ BBC by implicit threat of reduced funding, the ‘free’ press by owning it, and the alternative sources of media by the threat of withholding advertising revenue.
Social media is a force for democracy, it allows almost anyone a platform for their opinions and a forum for discussion. Small wonder parliament is wanting to shut it down and curtail its freedom.
It doesn’t even bear scrutiny until the other things on Richard’s list are well in train to be dealt with.
The place to start on the media with a proper scrutiny and regulation of the mainstream media which pumps out biased and incompetent propaganda with little regard for truth or decency on a daily basis and controls its own sham regulatory body. It’s shameful.
Regulation of social media WILL push it underground into the dark web. The people will not be silenced; and we just have to put up with the lunatic and unsavoury consequences of that. No one is compelled to read stuff that they find offensive, and they have a right of reply or at least the opportunity to participate in discussion. Not much of that in the mainstream is there. (Beyond “Why, why, why, why is the BBC not run like it used to be that nice arch-fascist headbanger Lord Reith)
PS ……..and social media is not run by Russians.
It’s not actually dominated by anybody. That’s what really pisses off the elites. Probably pisses off Putin as much if not more than it does any other elite manipulators.
Andy
What an earth do you think you are talking about?
Are you saying that the elites don’t use social media? That they are just on the receiving end? If so then I do not know what planet you are on. It is well known that Putin’s administration is also the opposition and uses social media to that end in order to portray his nation as democratic.
It is not just the large media outlets launching disinformation but also less well know outlets who are much harder to discern where they originate from.
If there is a ‘witch hunt’ concerning social media (and I don’t think there is) – then the hunt is aimed at WHO is using it – would you not agree? Not social media itself.
Let’s get topical here: social media is like heather: it’s beautiful to look at but in the wrong conditions turns into a combustible mess causing havoc and possible threat to life. And these ‘wildfires’ happen hourly, daily on social media.
For example I have a gay colleague who is passionate about gay health issues but tells me that there are online sites /threads to sites promoting unprotected sex as a ‘lifestyle choice’. Given what we know about HIV how can this be? Should it be allowed? How would you explain that to the parent of a young man infected by someone’s ‘life style’ choice?
Information and disinformation are two sides to the same coin called social media. And the problem is not social media per se. It is us. People. Social media is the way to self realise or reach out to people with your ideas these days. Whether you are saving puppies in Peru, mowing down your fellow students in a high school somewhere in the United Hates of America or running a meaningful blog trying to get people to think better about tax and political economy like this one.
So lets be clear Andy. I (and others) are not advocating policing social media. I’m advocating policing the PEOPLE who provide and use social media. And that is a good thing Andy. Yes indeed.
And this includes policing those who run social media. Given that Mark ‘whatisname’ (a person responsible for designing and managing (!!?) social media) has refused to come to be accountable before our Parliament about his organisation’s role in seemingly (and in all probability) undermining democratic processes throughout the world, I think that we should be intensely interested in what he and his org’ have been up to (or not).
And think about the money. Social media outlets make huge profits – much of it off the backs of free content provided by the likes of you and me writing stuff here in our spare time. Anything generating that much cash needs to be looked at because as already demonstrated, the capacity and desire to generate so much cash means that social media then becomes a value free zone (in terms of human values) and anything goes. Which is why we get the grooming of children online, sexist abuse and idiots even denying the holocaust (shame on you all BTW).
But – hey it’s all just content – never mind the holocaust denier – here’s what you are really here for – look at these latest offers from our advertisers – mobile phone deals, cheap flights, inane stories, celebrity updates. Yeah – right!
Someone said recently that the internet was the new ‘Wild West’ and I think that this is a fair description. And like the Wild West of yore, this new frontier needs the right laws and right people to marshall it for the common good. And it needs them now and in perpetuity. And only Governments can do it. Heck – states invented the internet anyway and they must claim it back.
Thank you PVSR – very well put. As you say, it’s about ‘policing’ those who provide and use social media. Noting that in Putin’s Russia and China, social media is ruthlessly policed to a degree that I suspect most here would not wish for. There is a balance to be found. As the HofC committee suggested, we have to have transparency on who is telling us what.
Also to note that others who believe that Putin’s government have played no role include Trump, Bannon, Farage, Rees Mogg, Cummins, Banks…..
Fine, Pilgrim; I hear what you are saying, but who are we going to allow to control the content and users of social media?
People who seek ‘authoritative’ sources are going to have to come to terms with the fact that in the age of ‘fake news’, and control of information it is never entirely ‘safe’ to relax one’s critical faculties.
I made this point the other day to someone who dismissed my proffered references (on MMT as it happens) as being just stuff from the internet…. Did he want it personally signed by Moses I wonder…or written on stone tablets by God him(?)self. Look where that took us in the past.
Heaven help us and our democracy when our fellow citizens are so ignorant, and more importantly, incapable of critical thinking and rational analysis of the guff they are peddled.
Ive taken to listening to BBC news and Today with my analytical brain switched on – not too often as the results are so frustrating. Just in the last 24 hours I’ve been listening to how the Facebook/Leave/Commons Report news has been reported by BBC. They have gone out of their way to minimise mention of the Leave campaign or Brexit despite the evidence that it was overwhelmingly a tool of Leave. No mention of the ads immediately after the Jo Cox murder (xenophobic if not racist in nature) – words fail me to describe those MPs involved in deciding to run those ads.
At some point we need to have an enquiry into just what has happened at the BBC. Channel 4 news is a stark and very welcome contrast, prepared to challenge all parties and dig into issues in detail. I’m not even sure the BBC has the expertise any more.
Next time the BBC is under attack, and it’s usually from the Right, they are going to find that they have lost the support of many of their more ‘centrist’ (and Left and Right of…) supporters.
I confess I wish to approach this from an ‘off-topic’ perspective. The BBC is currently making much of the endurance of the British public’s affection for Dad’s Army. In typical BBC manner it is now turning the BBC to transform this self-satisfaction (of both the public and the BBC) into a matter of national importance. BBC Radio Scotland news has even this morning discussed its significance, at length. Why is this happening; it is a fifty year old comedy show, that the BBC has long been given to repeating?
We are told that the characters of Dad’s Army are loveable, and much loved by the public; endearing, flawed, muddled, incompetent (hilariously so). Given the circumstances of the time, we may even see them as heroic: and they come through, in spite of their haplessness. We love it becauses it is an inspiration for later generations. In the BBC’s leaden wisdom – and given such an opportunity – it is in such cases given to preening; to producing and undertaking long interviews and analysis, to explore the imortance of the programme, and the BBC in supplying it. Yet this exercise threw up an interesting sidelight, when one gauche BBC interviewer suddenly asks an “expert” (there must be think-tanks full of experts on Dad’s Army): ‘what does this tell us about Brexit’?
Let me see. Hmmm? Who would have thought? Could it be that there are parallels? Could it be that a flawed, incompetent operatio; hopelessly out of its depth to undertake the task it is given; led by bunglers; a community moreover riven by petty disagreements, self-importance and self interest; and together totally incapable of professional effectiveness; somehow will muddle through and triumphantly succeed? Surely the BBC would not see such a parallel with today, or see such an opportunity to rally the country in political adversity. Nobody would use such a methodology, and use it in the public realm. Surely not; a foolish thought. Indeed, bumbling.
I’d say tangential rather than off-topic, but spot on target. A dark example of British humour in action. And worryingly apposite
World at One Trailer – anti-semitism in Corbyn’s Labour and Tour de France.
Not a squeak about a corrupted referendum and democratic process.
The BBC is the creature of the government, always has been. As Andy noted above its great first DG was somewhat to the right and apparently, an admirer of Hitler. Of course it has changed greatly since the 1930’s…loaded as it is with old boys & girls from public schools and Oxbridge.
Tom Mills argues that “the BBC is neither independent nor impartial; that its structure and culture have been profoundly shaped by the interests of powerful groups in British society; and that this in turn has shaped what we see, hear and read on the BBC….its journalism has overwhelmingly reflected the ideas and interests of elite groups, and marginalised alternative and oppositional perspectives….it is part of a cluster of powerful and largely unaccountable institutions which dominate British society — not just ‘a mouthpiece for the Establishment’ … but an integral part of it.” Mills, Tom. The BBC: Myth of a Public Service
And it seems in their campaign for free speech, as long as you’re not a marginalised, alternative, oppositional voice, they’ve shut down a couple Scottish Indy YouTube Channels. https://wingsoverscotland.com/the-state-flexes-its-muscles/
Apart from some sport I’ve stopped listening to it and I don’t have tv.