Article by James Beal for the Times - published 25 April 2022 An undercover documentary has revealed rampant sexual and racist abuse in the virtual reality world of the Metaverse. The investigation by Channel 4’s Dispatches uncovered disturbing behaviour by a host of individuals taking part in the Metaverse, a 3D online community spearheaded by Mark Zuckerberg, […]
Article written with Sean Casten and Phumzile Van Damme for the Independent - published 13 April 2022 Recent revelations have laid bare Facebook 's continued neglect of contract content moderators around the world. As the Online Safety Bill and other legislation is enacted, we are calling on lawmakers all over to seize this golden opportunity and set minimum standards for […]
Article written for The Times - published 11 April 2022 On April 19, the day the House of Commons returns after the Easter recess, we will debate and vote on the Online Safety Bill. This is a world-leading piece of legislation, that will set mandatory minimum safety standards for social media platforms, and create an […]
Article by Jim Norton for the Daily Mail - published 18 March 2022 Tech giants must not be allowed to become 'editor-in-chief of our free press', the chair of an influential parliamentary committee has warned. Damian Collins MP yesterday added his voice to calls for stronger protections for recognised news publishers within the Online Safety […]
Article written for the Daily Telegraph published 17 March 2022 The future is digital. Hybrid working, speaking to loved ones far away, community organising to send supplies to Ukraine: the internet has made this all so much easier. But so far, we’ve struggled to rein in the wild west of the internet, where abuse, crime, and […]
Article written for the New Statesman - published 7 February 2022 The last time I wrote for the New Statesman on Big Tech and internet safety, the joint committee on the draft online safety bill’s inquiry was in full swing. Over the course of five months, the committee received more than 200 written evidence submissions, and took […]
Article written for Mace Magazine - published 19 January 2022 On 28 October, Facebook changed its corporate nameto Meta and staked its claim to become the company of the Metaverse.It was the same time its global head of safety, Antigone Davis, gave evidence to the UK Parliament’s joint select committee on the Online Safety Bill, […]
Article written for CapX - published 13 January 2022 This month marks the one-year anniversary of the Capitol Hill riots in which five people died. It’s a stark reminder that dangerous behaviour online can metastasise into real-world violence. Plenty of other examples can be found closer to home, like the racist abuse of England footballers after […]
Article by Sarah Dawood for the New Statesman - published 15 December 2021 More online behaviour should be made illegal and fall under the scope of internet safety law, says Damian Collins, chair of the joint committee on the draft Online Safety Bill. The joint committee is made up of MPs and peers and has […]
Published in the The Times on 14 December 2021 As the father of two children, aged 14 and 12, their safety now, and the nature of the world we are building for them for the future, are my main concerns. The internet is already central to how most of us stay connected, access information, work and […]