DCMS committee chair right to raise Facebook openness concerns
Nov. 1, 2019PRESS RELEASE FROM THE OPEN KNOWLEDGE FOUNDATION
EMBARGO: IMMEDIATE
DCMS COMMITTEE CHAIR RIGHT TO RAISE FACEBOOK OPENNESS CONCERNS
The chair of Westminster’s Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee, Damian Collins, has written to Facebook to raise concerns about the platform’s openness.
In his latest letter to Sir Nick Clegg, Mr Collins calls for ‘open dialogue’ to address concerns about fact-checking, and urges implementation of proposals to restrict ad targeting for political ads.
Facebook is in the spotlight in the run-up to next month’s UK General Election, with Twitter this week announcing a ban on political adverts.
Catherine Stihler, chief executive of the Open Knowledge Foundation, said:
“Facebook needs to do significantly more to help tackle the spread of disinformation and ‘fake news’.
“We cannot have a repeat of the social media disinformation campaign that blighted the Brexit referendum in next month’s UK General Election.
“Damian Collins is right to demand greater openness from Facebook.
“The platform needs to make information open, allowing journalists, developers and third-party fact checkers to carry out analysis of disinformation operations.
“Social media giants like Facebook must work harder to build a fair, free and open digital world.”
ENDS
NOTES TO EDITORS
https://twitter.com/damiancollins/status/1189969857481265159?s=21
Contact: Alan Roden at alan.roden@okfn.org or +44 (0)7753 904 531
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