Article by Mark Wilding for Esquire - published 25 April 2020 On 6 April, Tom Phillips was self-isolating at his home in south London when he saw the news that a mobile phone mast in Birmingham had been set on fire. Experts suspected that the action had been prompted by a conspiracy theory linking 5G […]
Article by Matthew Moore for The Times - published 21 April 2020 Ministers have been urged to make the tech giants Facebook and Google share their advertising revenue with news publishers, after similar proposals were adopted in Australia. Media companies will be entitled to a slice of the money that digital platforms generate from their […]
Article by James Tapsfield for MailOnline - published 20 April 2020 Facebook and Google should be made to pay for news content generated by the UK media to avoid the 'death of the industry', ministers were told today. Ex-Culture Committee chair Damian Collins is urging the government to follow the example of Australia, where new rules are […]
Article by David Wooding and published 12 April 2020 An MP is backing a new way to counter coronavirus conspiracy theories sweeping the internet during lockdown. Tory Damian Collins is helping to launch a free fact-checking service to nail dangerous lies about the disease. One false rumour blamed mobile phone masts for spreading the virus and […]
Article by Amie Tsang for The New York Times - published 10 April 2020 British audiences have flocked to the broadcaster for breaking news and escapism, offering it hope of fending off its critics and cuts to its funding. LONDON — It may seem unlikely that a country known for being buttoned-up would turn to […]
Article by David Molloy & Leo Kelion for BBC News - published 9 April 2020 Social networks need a dedicated button to flag up bogus coronavirus-related posts, an advocacy group has said. The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) said the apps had "missed a trick" in combating the problem. The call coincides with a […]
Article by Alain Tolhurst for PoliticsHome - published 9 April 2020 Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden has called on the broadcast watchdog to take action against a TV station for allowing David Icke to promote “lunatic conspiracy theories” about the coronavirus pandemic. London Live has come under fire for giving the former BBC presenter - who has […]
Published 30 March 2020 Tory MP Damian Collins has warned against sharing coronavirus-related "fake news" as he launched an online service to combat falsehoods during the pandemic. The former chairman of the Digital, Culture, Media And Sport (DCMS) Select Committee called for knowingly peddling misinformation related to the Covid-19 outbreak to be made an offence. He has […]
Article by Mark Daly - published 24 February 2020 Fresh questions over Mo Farah's relationship with his banned former coach Alberto Salazar have been raised in a new BBC Panorama investigation. Documents show Farah repeatedly denied to US Anti-Doping (Usada) investigators he had received injections of the controversial supplement L-carnitine before the 2014 London Marathon. […]
Article by Alexandra S. Levine on 02/05/2020. Full article here. During a visit Tuesday to the POLITICO newsroom near Washington, Collins said he plans to press the British government to avoid Section 230-like language in a post-Brexit trade deal with the U.S. That domestic law limits websites' liability for what users post, and its export […]