MPs have called on Google, Facebook and Twitter to return to Parliament to answer their questions about Covid-19 misinformation content found on their platforms.
The MPs claimed that Google, Facebook and Twitter failed to give adequate answers to their questions regarding content found on their social media platforms, which contained Covid-19 misinformation.
Julian Knight, chairman of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) select committee said MPs were "very disappointed" by the standard of evidence offered by the three companies about coronavirus misinformation at their last meeting.
In a statement, Knight said: "The failure by Twitter, Facebook and Google to give adequate answers in writing to our outstanding questions have left me with no alternative but to recall them to Parliament."
The statement specifically requested Google's Ronan Harris, managing director of UK & Ireland and Dara Nasr, managing director of Twitter UK to attend but only Facebook's head of global policy Monica Bickert has agreed to the meeting.
Issues to clarify
The DCMS committee wanted to clarify several issues.
These include how Facebook addresses the spread of false information on its messaging app WhatsApp and how Twitter deals with influencers and celebrities who contribute to the spread of misinformation, including 5G conspiracy theories.
The MPs are also concerned that Google-owned YouTube is allowing content creators to effectively monetize the spread of misinformation through Super Chat revenue.
The responses
Twitter has launched a labelling system on tweets that could potentially cause harm but its implementation appears faulty as some posts of 5G conspiracy theorists still remain unchallenged, including those of David Icke.
The microblogging firm sent a document to the committee, detailing the steps it is undertaking to fight misinformation.
It stated: "Our aim with harmful Covid-19 misinformation is to rapidly identify and remove tweets that pose the greatest risk of causing harm."
Facebook chief executive officer (CEO) Mark Zuckerberg assured that the company had and would remove any content likely to result in "immediate and imminent harm" to users.
Zuckerberg explained: "Even if something isn't going to lead to imminent physical harm, we don't want misinformation to be the content that is going viral."
He mentioned that the the social media company removed Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro's claim that scientists had "proved" there was a coronavirus cure because it was "obviously" not true.
He also said Facebook had removed content from groups that claim that the 5G digital network causes the spread of the coronavirus and in some cases, encouraged believers to destroy the networks' physical infrastructure.
Facebook took down Icke’s official page on its platform. The company said it removed the page for posting “health misinformation that could cause physical harm”.
Among Icke’s false claims about the virus was the suggestion that 5G mobile phone networks are linked to the spread of the virus. He also suggested in one video that a Jewish group was behind the virus.
In a statement, Facebook said: "We have removed this Page for repeatedly violating our policies on harmful misinformation."
In response to the ban, the conspiracy theorist posted on Twitter: "Fascist Facebook deletes David Icke – the elite are TERRIFIED."
