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Far too much in today's @CommonsCMS report on disinformation to discuss here. But a couple of quick thoughts that might be helpful. (Full report is here: publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cm…). /thread.
It does not, as some seem to think, say that social media platforms should be defined as 'publishers'. Rather they are somewhere in between a platform & publisher & we need a new definition & rules for them. I agree with that. We can't always rely on old categories. 
Looks like they're pushing something like the German NetzDG law, which basically introduces harsh penalties if illegal / harmful content isn't removed quickly. I expect the forthcoming White Paper ('early 2019', whatever that means) on online harms to propose something like this.
Information about the German NetzDG law available here: theguardian.com/world/2018/jan…
Be aware that, as with most new efforts to regulate tech, there are plenty of teething problems too, as per this @TheAtlantic piece:
theatlantic.com/international/…
Be aware that, as with most new efforts to regulate tech, there are plenty of teething problems too, as per this @TheAtlantic piece:
theatlantic.com/international/…
The report discusses 'harmful' content a lot. No matter how we try to define it, this will always be a contested term. The case of self-harming content is a good example of how difficult it actually is to police. I did a separate thread on that here:
(In short, we sometimes forget how difficult it actually is to define & identify harmful content. Even a 99% success rate (impossible) would mean 000s of errors a day). But Facebook should start employing more professional, well paid subject matter specialists as content mods).
I strongly support the proposed updates to electoral law - essentially requiring political adverts to be made public and in real time. (I'd also add the targeting methods applied). This should be one of the easier changes to make & vital to maintain trust in election integrity.
The techniques available to profile & target is about to become significantly more personalised (see trends in cross device targeting), detailed (IoT data) & possibly automated (content creation). See my @Demos report on the future of political campaigs: demos.co.uk/project/the-fu…
It calls for the ICO to be as technically skilled as the companies they regulate. Is it feasible? The top data scientists as Google are paid a fortune - will we be happy for regulators earning $500k p/a? I doubt it. Need to emphasize the morals & mission of public service.
Very glad to see that digital literacy is given such prominence. Probably the most important & difficult task we face. But it can't all be about tech - even Google's algorithms & Facebook's newsfeed aren't as powerful as the cognitive filters in our own heads.
And did I mention I have a book all about this? /end
