Welcome to the latest Carnegie UK Trust Online Harms update, where we bring together the latest news, research and developments relating to Online Harms policy in the UK and further afield to help campaigners, advocates and policy folk stay connected.
Since the last edition, we’ve seen the Government confirm the establishment of the new Digital Markets Unit, reports from the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation on both online design (in conjunction with the Behavioural Insights Team) and algorithmic bias, while in Parliament Jeremy Wright MP led a well-attended debate on Online Harms. In the next few weeks, we’re looking forward to the DCMS Select Committee hearing evidence from social media companies on action to tackle Covid-19 anti-vaccination campaigns.
Do contact us at info@carnegieuk.org with any news on your work or upcoming events that you’d like to share in our next edition. If you’ve found it useful, do share this newsletter with your colleagues and contacts, who can sign up here to receive it direct.
What’s been happening?
The road to regulation
Catch up with the debate on “The Regulation and Prevention of Online Harms” held in Parliament on 19th November here. Of particular note is the summing up by Digital Minister Matt Warman where he indicated that the scope of the proposals may be wider than Government had previously suggested, plus his firm commitment that the full response to the White Paper will come out “this year” (there’s three working weeks left of “this year”) with legislation to follow “early next year”.
Meanwhile, the Parliamentary debate on the AudioVisual Media Services (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020, and the connections with Online Harms regulation, can be read here.
The Lords Communications and Digital Committee report on the future of journalism calls, among other things, for action to fix the online advertising market.
In answer to a written question on measures to tackle use of embedded images on social media designed to provoke epilepsy seizures, Caroline Dinenage replied: “As part of the Online Harms White Paper proposals, the new duty of care will ensure companies have robust systems and processes in place to tackle illegal content on their services. This includes tackling illegal online abuse which provokes epilepsy seizures”.
Damian Collins MP has set up a new APPG to address media literacy and fake news.
William Perrin spoke to Vicki Shotbolt and Geraldine Bedell on the Parentzone podcast about the Carnegie UK Trust work to develop a statutory duty of care; and Maeve Walsh, Carnegie UK Associate, wrote a blog for Demos on why better public engagement might help not just the policy and regulatory design, but also the Parliamentary handling, of the Online Harms proposals.
Systems, design and governance
The Government has responded to the Competition and Markets Authority review of online platforms and digital advertising and confirmed that the new Digital Markets Unit will be up and running by April 2021.
The Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation (CDEI) and the Behavioural Insights Team have published findings from their work on how better design of online services can support active user choices, meanwhile there are signs of systemic thinking about harms at Twitter.
A recent event, hosted by the Safety Tech Innovation Network on “how to design for audience needs” can be viewed here.
Children and young people
ONS statistics on online bullying of children and young people have been published.
The new Digital Futures Commission has published its research agenda, which includes a consultation, informed by online events and discussions, on children’s play in the digital world. Find out more here.
In case you missed the Council of Europe's events to mark the European Day of Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, which focused this year on self-generated sexual images, catch up with two important speeches: here and here.
Misinformation and disinformation
Ofcom continues to publish its excellent data series on how people access media about Covid-19: 81% say that untrue stories or items about coronavirus should not be posted or shared on social media.
An insightful piece in the New York Times looks in detail at how Facebook attempted to address the challenges of misinformation during the US Election.
Facebook, YouTube and Twitter have announced a collaboration with factcheckers to address Covid-19 anti-vaccine misinformation. More here in this blog from Full Fact.
Journalists at The Information report that: ‘Since 2018, Facebook had maintained a “political whitelist” of about 112,000 accounts belonging to government officials and candidates whose posts couldn’t be fact checked, a process that can trigger penalties for posts found to contain misinformation, such as reduced reach.”
Societal harms
Carnegie UK Trust’s William Perrin and Professor Lorna Woods gave evidence to the Victoria Parliament inquiry into social media and the impact on elections. The transcript of their evidence will be available here shortly.
Catch up with the wonderful events that formed the Webroots Democracy farewell festival here or via their podcast.
To accompany a recent joint Demos/Twitter event on the need for data sharing to address manipulation of the online environment, Carl Miller and Katy Minshall have published a blog on the topic.
European and international developments
All eyes on Europe in the next couple of weeks: the European Democracy Action Plan is out on 2nd December, with the Digital Services Act due to follow a week later on the 9th December. On the latter, trade body DotEurope (formerly EDIMA) has called for an independent EU-level governance body to “monitor, oversee and advise on measures taken by online companies to root out illegal activity and content”.
Meanwhile, substantial legislation may also be on its way soon in Ireland where, at some point, the Irish Parliament will begin pre-legislative scrutiny of the Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill.
The EU has published its Data Governance regulation proposals, the first of a set of measures included in the 2020 European strategy for data.
The APPG on Social Media is seeking submissions to its a new inquiry: “Selfie Generation: What’s behind the rise of self-generated indecent images of children online”: deadline 31st January 2021.
The Gambling Health Alliance has launched a #LidOnLoots campaign on loot boxes.
WeProtect has launched a petition to address the impact of the EU privacy directive on the use of technology that helps identify child sexual exploitation online.
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