Why are we still talking about misinformation?

Cancel culture on social media is thriving – but why is misinformation yet to be “cancelled”?

Facebook was founded in 2004, Twitter was founded in 2006 – we’re almost 15 years into the social media age and yet online misinformation is possibly more rife than it ever has been.

Covid-19 and the pandemic has perhaps exacerbated the problem, although these issues were seen prior to the pandemic. This week we’ve seen many anti-lockdown and anti-vaccine protests, advertised and promoted on social media. In particular, former Police Officer Mark Sexton and former nurse Kate Shemirani were reported to have spoken at an anti-lockdown, anti-vaccine protest in Parliament Square today. Those who attended presumably heard news of it from social media, and shared it on the same platforms.

Misinformation affects businesses and individuals too – you may remember the rather odd (and outrageously defamatory) claim that the online furniture company Wayfair was instrumental in child trafficking – selling children instead of wardrobes last year.

The QAnon “pizza gate” conspiracy theory on social media no doubt affected the US Elections in 2016 and 2020 as well as slurring various wealthy individuals, and of course, the well-known (and de-bunked) conspiracy theory that Bill Gates is actually behind the entire pandemic.

Cancel culture on social media is thriving – but why is misinformation yet to be “cancelled”?

The answer lies both in the hands of the social media companies themselves, and various governments. Social media companies hold themselves out to be a hands-off forum, but this is simply not the case in the current world – they have grown to such behemoth status that they affect major world events and act as a check on power across the world. Freedom of speech and checks and balances are important in a democratic society – however social media remains unchecked.

Last year, both Twitter and Facebook committed to removing falsities from their platforms and said that they would tackle fake news head on, particularly in relation to the US election coverage and information regarding Covid-19. We’ll all have seen the Covid-19 information badges – labelling content that might be misinformation and providing links to official sources on Instagram. Twitter deployed a similar label in relation to the US election last year.

However, it appears that these measures just aren’t good enough – misinformation is thriving – is it too little too late? A major overhaul of regulation is needed and OFCOM has proposed imposing financial penalties against social media companies that fail to combat fake news and online hate. Social media has had 15 years to refine their policies and deal with this issue – and yet we’re still discussing misinformation and online hate – to the point where governments are now having to intervene and threaten fines and statutory regulation.

There is a balancing act to be had between free speech and the public interest – free speech promoting misinformation is to the detriment of society as a whole – a balancing act that has been well established in the UK and Europe. It beggars belief why we are still discussing these issues and why social media companies haven’t intervened sooner.

Ironically, social media’s inaction to date may mean that the ship has sailed on their opportunity to self-regulate their content, instead having governments step in to legislate around their content. Meanwhile we wait to see how the new OFCOM regulatory proposals will be used in practice.