Social Media Giants Grilled By MPs Over Online Hate Speech

Social Media became the medium of many people to freely express their opinions but it is also the medium of hate speech. Last Tuesday, Google, Facebook, and Twitter were grilled by MPs for failing to take stronger action to tackle hate speech online.

According to BBC, the Home Affairs select committee asked the representatives from Facebook, Twitter, and Google to why they do not have efficient policing to their content given that they have earned billions. One MP even said that the social media giants did a terrible job of dealing with the problems.

Labour MP Chuka Umunna accused YouTube of making money from videos peddling hate. Umunna added that YouTube is making money and the people who use their platform are making money out of hate.

The social media companies defended their monitoring system but Yvette Cooper, chair of the committee, said that they are unconvincing. Cooper cited examples of tweets from users who had tweeted a series of vile, racist and violent attacks against political figures such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel and London Mayor Sadiq Khan, but the user had not been removed according to The Guardian.

The Twitter's head of public policy for the UK, Nick Pickles, admitted that the firm did not do a good job at checking the abusive content of its platform and promised that the issue will be dealt at the end of the day.

Facebook also faced the interrogation; MPs cited four Facebook pages that were flagged to the firm but remained on the site, including one titled 'Ban Islam'. The EMEA policy director of Facebook, Simon Milner, tried to explain the reason why the four Facebook pages all remained online.

Milner said that the pages do not express hate against people because of their religion. The page is designed to criticize Islam as a religion but it is not designed to attack Muslims.

Milner insisted that Facebook used a lot of effort, time, and resources in tackling the issues and saying that they are negligent is not true.

TagsSocial Media, Facebook, Twitter, Google, Home Affairs, Online Hate Speech, Labour MP Chuka Umunna