Article by Hannah Boland for the Daily Telegraph - published 1 February 2020 Facebook cannot be trusted to regulate itself and instead should face "independent oversight", the former chair of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee has said. Writing in The Telegraph, Conservative MP Damian Collins said there were clear limitations to Facebook's Oversight Board, and said the […]
Article by Mike Wright for the Daily Telegraph - published 12 January 2021 Online harms laws are at risk of being watered down in US trade negotiations, two former culture secretaries have warned the Government. Jeremy Wright and Karen Bradley have put their names to a letter calling on Liz Truss, the International Trade Secretary, to […]
Article by Hannah Boland for the Daily Telegraph - published 11 January 2020 Social media firms can no longer shun responsibility for what is posted on their sites after banning Donald Trump and face an inevitable crackdown, former digital ministers have said. Companies including Twitter, Facebook and Snap last week took action to silence the […]
Article by Jack Malvern for The Times - published 11 January 2021 The decision by social media giants to ban President Trump raises a “very big question” over how they are regulated, Matt Hancock has said. Twitter, Facebook and Instagram blocked Mr Trump’s accounts after his supporters stormed the US Capitol last week. Mr Hancock, the health […]
Article written for the Times - published 8 January 2021 We should be shocked at the scenes in Washington DC, of protesters storming the Capitol building in order to try and stop Congress from validating the election of Joe Biden to be the next president. These are appalling scenes and an attack on a fair […]
Article by Mark Duell and Martin Robinson for MailOnline - published 15 December 2020 Facebook should not be trusted with protecting UK users when their data is moved to its US headquarters after Brexit because the social network is more interested in profits than privacy, a leading Tory told MailOnline today. Damian Collins, former chairman […]
Article by Sam Williams for KentOnline - published 9 December 2020 Fears have been raised over how disinformation being spread on social media could dissuade some people from taking the record-breaking Covid-19 vaccine. Damian Collins, MP for Folkestone and Hythe, says it will be 'a matter of personal choice' whether people accept the vaccine or not, but he hopes […]
Article by Matthew Chapman for the Bureau of Investigative Journalism - published 8 December 2020 Mark Zuckerberg threatened to pull Facebook’s investment from the UK in a private meeting with Matt Hancock, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism can reveal. The minutes, from May 2018, show that an obsequious Hancock was eager to please, offering “a […]
Article by Sarah Marsh for The Guardian - published 7 December 2020 TikTok has launched an investigation and banned some search terms after the Guardian found harmful pro-anorexia content was still easily searchable despite measures taken by the social media company to prohibit the advertising of weight-loss products. The video app – one of the […]
Article by Brian Fung for CNN Business - published 2 December 2020 A British member of Parliament blasted Facebook on Wednesday over its handling of anti-vaccine content and warned that the social media platform risks undermining Covid-19 vaccines just as vaccination programs are getting underway. “Today in the UK, the Pfizer vaccine has received regulatory approval and the […]