The report by the digital, culture, media and sport committee on fake news and disinformation (MPs call for tough new powers to curb Facebook’s ‘digital gangsters’, 18 February) is a wake-up call for the government to update Britain’s broken campaign rules. The challenges facing our democracy are bigger than one referendum or election: this is about the integrity of our political system.
The report echoes many of the calls we made this month in our report Reining in the Wild West: Campaign Rules for the 21st Century, including giving regulators greater enforcement powers and increasing transparency online. Since the DCMS committee’s interim report last year, the government has responded with only a limited consultation on imprints. While political ad transparency must be enshrined in legislation, these issues cut much deeper and require a comprehensive review of campaign law.
Online campaigning has the potential to increase citizens’ participation in our political processes, but our rules and laws need to be sufficiently robust to protect our democracy from the threats it also poses.
This is bigger than Brexit, but it is also bigger than Facebook and Twitter. Rather than waiting for tech giants to self-regulate, ministers must take responsibility. If they don’t, there is a real risk that future elections could be undermined by foreign interference and dodgy donations. The time to act is now.
Dr Jess Garland
Director of policy and research, Electoral Reform Society
• The DCMS committee’s report calling for statutory regulation of social media comes a week after widespread calls for legislation to protect young people from damaging social media content. The report says electoral law is unfit for purpose; that it has taken so long even to consider statutory measures demonstrates how inadequate current approaches are for the technology businesses of the 21st century.
We need a radical shift to a more inclusive, innovation-enabling regulatory approach if we are to protect citizens while enabling technologies to deliver public value.
Nesta is pioneering a new set of principles for regulation that could help to anticipate (rather than react to) developments, protect citizens’ interests and encourage a test-and-learn approach in partnership with industries. Should this “anticipatory regulation” be adopted, it could pave the way to more agile and effective regulation that works for all. Social media is just the start; AI, “deep fake” videos and drones are already upon us. To be relevant and effective, regulators must embrace a radical rethink and new principles, and have an open conversation about how we effectively regulate today’s tech.
If we don’t get it right now, we’ll be having the same conversations in 10 years, scrabbling around for options when we have missed the boat.
Harry Armstrong
Head of technology futures, Nesta
• As an MP 20 years ago, I suggested that the world needed an Internet Forum, an equivalent (but with teeth) of the annual Davos shindig. Post-Brexit, and with India campaigning for our security council veto, the UK will need to up its game in the soft-power stakes. Over the past five years, parliament has railed against global internet players over non-payment of tax, giving platforms to Isis, Russian interference in our elections and Facebook’s arrogance. Now more than ever, the UK, with its proud heritage of Babbage, Turing and Berners-Lee, should create a World Digital Forum.
Derek Wyatt
London
• The DCMS committee says that Facebook knowingly violated data privacy laws, that Britain’s electoral laws are “not fit for purpose” and that there are questions to be answered about foreign interference in the EU referendum (‘Beyond the law’ and destroying democracy: the damning verdict on a social media giant, 18 February). Coupled with ongoing questions about financial misconduct in the referendum campaign, is it not time to declare the outcome of the referendum invalid?
Janet Roberts
Saundersfoot, Pembrokeshire
