Thread by @aracalacana

El Comité de Digital, Culture, Media and Sport del Parlamento británico publicó finalmente su informe sobre Facebook, desinformación, fake news y manipulación política. Es lapidario.
A continuación algunos párrafos (más adelante haré un análisis):
theguardian.com/technology/201…

1. "Social media companies cannot hide behind the claim of being merely a ‘platform’ and maintain that they have no responsibility themselves in regulating the content of their sites";

2. "Our Interim Report recommended that clear legal liabilities should be established for tech companies to act against harmful or illegal content on their sites. There is now an urgent need to establish independent regulation."

3. "We believe that a compulsory Code of Ethics should be established, overseen by an independent regulator, setting out what constitutes harmful content. The independent regulator would have statutory powers to monitor relevant tech companies" (sigue)

3.b. "... this would create a regulatory system for online content that is as effective as that for offline content industries" 🧐

4. "The Code of Ethics should be developed by technical experts and overseen by the independent regulator, in order to set down in writing what is and is not acceptable on social media";

5. "The process should establish clear, legal liability for tech companies to act against agreed harmful and illegal content on their platform and such companies should have relevant systems in place to highlight and remove ‘types of harm";

6. "This same public body should have statutory powers to obtain any information from social media companies that are relevant to its inquiries. This could include the capability to check what data is being held on an individual user, if a user requests such information";

7. "This public body should be accessible to the public and be able to take up complaints from members of the public about social media companies";

8. "Inferred data should be as protected under the law as personal information. Protections of privacy law should be extended beyond personal information to include models used to make inferences about an individual";

9. "The Chancellor’s decision, in his 2018 Budget, to impose a new 2%
digital services tax on UK revenues of big technology companies from April 2020, shows that the Government is open to the idea of a levy on tech companies";

10. "The new independent system and regulation that we recommend should be established must be adequately funded. We recommend that a levy is placed on tech companies operating in the UK to fund its work" 🔎

11. "The Cambridge Analytica scandal was faciliated by Facebook’s policies. If it had fully complied with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) settlement, it would not have happened";

12. "The evidence that we obtained indicates that Facebook was willing to override its users’ privacy settings in order to transfer data to some app developers, to charge high prices in advertising to some developers, for the exchange of that data, and to starve" some of them;

13. "The Information Commissioner told the Committee that Facebook needs to significantly change its business model and its practices to maintain trust (...) it is evident that Facebook intentionally and knowingly violated both data privacy and anti-competition laws";

14. "In our Interim Report, we stated that the dominance of a handful of powerful tech companies has resulted in their behaving as if they were monopolies in their specific area, and that there are considerations around the data on which those services are based", y ATENCIÓN...

14. bis. "Facebook, in particular, is unwilling to be accountable to regulators around the world. The Government should consider the impact of such monopolies on the political world and on democracy" 😉

apostilla: un cariño a quienes decretaron que ocuparse de la concentración, los conglomerados con posición dominante y los monopolios en información y comunicación está demodé, es peligroso o engorda 😘

15. "The Competitions and Market Authority (CMA) should conduct a comprehensive audit of the operation of the advertising market on social media";

15. bis "it should also investigate whether Facebook specifically has
been involved in any anti-competitive practices and conduct a review of FB’s business practices, to decide if FB is unfairly using its dominant market position to decide which businesses should succeed or fail"

16. "Electoral law is not fit for purpose and needs to be changed to reflect changes in campaigning techniques, and the move from physical leaflets and billboards to online, microtargeted political campaigning";

17. "There needs to be absolute transparency of online political campaigning, including clear, persistent banners on all paid-for political
adverts and videos, indicating the source and the advertiser; a category introduced for digital spending on campaigns...";

18. "The Government should carry out a review of the current rules and regulations surrounding political work during elections and referenda including increasing the length of the regulated period; defining what constitutes political campaigning...";

19. "Political advertising items should be publicly accessible in a searchable repository —who is paying for the ads, which organisations are sponsoring the ad, who is being targeted by the ads—so that members of the public can understand the behaviour of individual advertisers";

20. "Tech companies must address the issue of shell companies and other professional attempts to hide identity in advert purchasing, especially around political advertising— both within and outside campaigning periods" 👻;

21. "We ask the Government whether current legislation to protect the electoral process from malign influence is sufficient. Legislation should be in line with the latest technological developments, and should be explicit on the foreign influencing of the democratic process";

22. "The Government should put pressure on social media companies to publicise any instances of disinformation. The Government needs to ensure that social media companies share information they have about foreign interference on their sites";

23. "Currently the strategic communications industry is largely self-regulated. The
UK Government should consider new regulations that curb bad behaviour in this
industry" (otro saludito para los predicadores periféricos de la autorregulación);

24. "There needs to be transparency in these strategic communications companies, with a public record of all campaigns that they work on, both at home and abroad. They need to be held accountable for breaking laws during campaigns anywhere in the world";

25. "Facebook gives the impression of working towards transparency, with regard to the auditing of its news content; but there is considerable obfuscation concerning the auditing of its adverts, which provide Facebook with its ever-increasing revenue";

26. "Digital literacy should be a fourth pillar of education, alongside reading, writing and maths" ⚠️

27. "Social media users need online tools to help them distinguish between quality journalism, and stories coming from organisations that have been linked to disinformation or are regarded as being unreliable sources";

28. "Social media companies need to be more transparent about their own sites, and how they work. Rather than hiding behind complex agreements, they should be informing users of how their sites work, including curation functions and the way in which algorithms are used";

En suma: el reporte del comité parlamentario en UK (acá está completo: publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cm…) parte de una descripción lapidaria acerca del comportamiento de Facebook y formula una serie amplia, variada, de recomendaciones.

En el punteo previo me tomé la libertad de abreviar alguna cita (para que quepan en modo Twitter) sin alterar su contenido.

Rodrigo está tuiteando el contenido del informe en español:

https://twitter.com/rodrigo_ramirez/status/1097491111952699393

Temas comprendidos en el reporte del Parlamento Británico: campañas electorales, agenda pública, opinión pública, relación entre medios y plataformas digitales, regulación de la comunicación, competencia económica, datos personales, alfabetización digital, transparencia 👁‍🗨

En línea con uno de los planteos del documento del comité parlamentario británico, el Partido Socialdemócrata de Alemania impulsa un proyecto de ley que obligaría a Google y a Facebook a abrir sus datos para fines públicos y de competencia económica 👇🏽
mediatelecom.com.mx/2019/02/18/ale…