Facebook will make its social media sites safer for young people, Sir Nick Clegg pledged today.
Sir Nick told the BBC that the social network was “taking steps soon to blur images, block a number of hashtags that have come to light and thirdly to continue to work with the Samaritans and other organisations.”
His comments come after the parents of Molly Russell, a teenager who took her own life, said they believed that the social media site was partly responsible for her death.
They said they had found distressing material on her account about depression and suicide.
Making his comments after his first speech as Facebook's head of global affairs, Sir Nick said Instagram still has “a lot more work to do” around images of self-harm on the platform.
The ex-Liberal Democrat leader also discussed Facebook’s use of data and called for tech firms and politicians to work together to regulate social media.
He said that while Facebook’s fast growth meant it had “undoubtedly made mistakes” and that the site had learned some “hard lessons” and was now entering a new phase of “reform, responsibility and change.”
The ex-Liberal Democrat leader said Facebook alone should not be making ethical or political decisions about what should or should be allowed on social media and called on governments and regulators to work with the platform.
“Everyone has a role in this. Facebook doesn’t have all the answers,” he said.
“But nor do governments or regulators either. We must learn from each other and work together.”
Sir Nick was also asked about the social media site's plans to merge the messaging infrastructure of its family of apps - which includes Facebook Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp - but said any process was in the "early days" and had only been discussed on a preliminary basis.
He also confirmed that the company's political advert transparency tools already introduced in the UK would be rolled out across Europe for issues related to European Parliament elections taking place in May.
He added that an "election integrity centre" would be opened in Dublin as a hub for spotting hate speech, misinformation and attempted election interference on the site ahead of the polls.
Additional reporting by PA.
