To prevent the arbitrary removal of stories by journalists at reputable news outlets when shared on social media platforms, ministers yesterday night submitted an amendment to the Bill.
Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are the most popular social media sites for news consumption, according to Ofcom, which estimates that half of UK adults use social media.
The internet is the most popular news consumption platform among 16 to 24 year olds and members of underrepresented racial and ethnic groups.
But social media administrators or algorithms have taken down or rendered less visible news articles for unknown reasons, frequently at the height of news cycles.
As an illustration, last year YouTube abruptly deactivated TalkRadio’s channel before reactivating it 12 hours later and admitting the decision had been incorrect.
The requirements are an additional layer of protection to the safeguards already included in the Bill for online journalism and will assist address this problem.
Currently, the Bill would not prevent platforms from eliminating or making less visible the content of news publishers if they choose to review it for potential violations of their terms and conditions, even if they ultimately found no problems with it.
The largest and most well-known social media platforms and other Category 1 businesses will now be expected to make sure that articles from recognized news publishers are still viewable and accessible on their websites while they are being reviewed by moderators.
Before deleting or censoring their content or taking any other action against their accounts, they will be forced to notify news publishers and give them a right of appeal.
This will lessen the chance that platforms may arbitrarily or unintentionally censor news publisher content, which is crucial to UK society and democracy.
News publishers will gain from more knowledge of potential actions against their content, early notice of these actions, and increased transparency regarding the decision-making process.
Nadine Dorries, the digital secretary, said:
Our democracy depends on people having access to excellent news, and our industry-leading internet safety law adds strict new protections for press freedom and free speech online.
However, we’ve seen tech companies arbitrarily eliminate legitimate news with zero transparency, and this could have a significant negative influence on public dialogue.
These additional safeguards will prevent it from happening.
The modification was made in response to worries expressed by the news industry and the Joint Committee that the Bill would inadvertently encourage platforms to remove or moderate news publishers’ material with excessive zeal out of fear of penalties from the regulator Ofcom.
This could harm news publishers’ ability to remain profitable because many of them rely on advertising revenue from users who access their material through social media platforms.
In response to these worries, the government has enhanced the safeguards to stop this from occurring.
The new criterion ensures that content from reputable news publishers will remain online throughout a moderator review and any subsequent appeal, unless it is prohibited by the Bill or platforms will be held legally or financially liable for hosting it.
The Bill’s existing complaint procedures allow users to request the removal of their content after it has been removed, but platforms can still take quick action on content provided by regular users.
News publishers will be informed before their content is removed for review rather than after it has already been done so, allowing them time to file an appeal.
The government has taken action to prevent the dissemination of false information regarding Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine by RT and Sputnik in the UK, and sanctioned news organizations will not be given these protections.
The rules for selecting whether organizations can be recognized news publishers will be changed by the ministers to expressly exclude sanctioned organizations.