The prime minister's spokesman is the latest of many to criticise social media companies for their handling of fake news. In his words, firms like Google and Facebook 'can and must do more' in their effort to expunge extremist/inflammatory material from the web. Again talks of responsibility arise in saying that the companies should be ensuring that material of this nature isn't disseminated by any means. The Westminster attack is an event that has caused this responsibility to be brought into question yet again. The availability of material that promotes violent extremism is another concern that has been reignited here, however No 10 have clarified that they aren't stating that it had been a direct contributor to the perpetrator's radicalisation. Although the spokesperson did say that the priority is to stop radical material appearing online at all, he didn't comment on whether or not the government would actually legislate if social media companies didn't tighten their current procedures. With this comes the recognition that the 'fight against terrorism and hate speech has to be a joint' saying that while government is doing their best to monitor the issue, social media companies need to do their part. Boris Johnson also contributed to the conversation stating that he also believes that social media companies have the greatest level of responsibility in invigilating and taking down any 'corrupting and polluting' material. This all comes after the House of Commons home affairs committee's chair, Yvette Cooper came to findings that Twitter and Facebook 'were too slow to deal with hate-filled content' while YouTube's enforcement of their own community standards was 'a joke.' Additionally, debate on whether internet companies should publish photos and videos of terrorist incidents as they happen is being launched, with Facebook saying that: 'we take swift action to remove it from Facebook and work with law enforcement and security agencies as appropriate.'
This article is representative of another moral panic that new and digital media is contributing to: extremist material. It appears that content of this nature is simply too easily available on social media platforms and its presence acts as a big danger to society. It'll have to be seen in the next few months how exactly social media companies react to try and increase their role in tackling online extremism, if they even will in the first place. Not only this, but we could also see more removal of things like video content that display terrorist acts taking place, as the position that Facebook seem to be taking on it is completely negative unlike the PM's spokesman who conversely says that the content is useful to institutions like the police.
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