A recent case in which two young female journalists in the United Kingdom were sent extreme pornography through WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger highlights the growing indifference of internet giants to any controls about what happens on their platforms.
It prompted Online Safety Officer for the Reach newspaper group, Rebecca Whittington, to report that some of the unsolicited content received by journalists was so extreme that police said it would have been a criminal offence to share it with security.
These incidents are nothing new — in fact they have become such a regular occurrence that many recipients no longer bother to report them.
“There is apathy about the consequences of reporting…the journalists feel nothing will happen; nothing will be done; they will never hear about it again, so what’s the point,” Ms Whittington says.
The company at fault in this case is Meta, but since the takeover by multi-billionaire Elon Musk, many believe X (formally Twitter) is the worst offender, a free-for-all for hackers, abusers, disinformation agents and even foreign spies.
Commentators say Musk’s dictatorial management style and his obsession with ever-increasing profits has led to a lack of attention to content moderation, allowing sick and fake news specialists free rein.
As one former senior employee says, Musk’s early decision to downsize the platform’s staff meant there were not enough remaining to control malicious actors trying to game the system.
“People are not sitting still. They are actively employing new ways to be horrible on the internet,” the former Twitter officer said.
Ms Whittington said she was angry and sick of feeling powerless.
“At Reach we can offer support; we can offer security; we can offer counselling, but we cannot single-handedly stop the scourge of unsolicited sexual content,” she said.
“Meta absolutely needs to do more to identify abusers and hold them accountable.”
The UK journalists’ case is far from isolated. Meta founder, Mark Zuckerberg has come under constant criticism from legal experts and human rights campaigners who say the company is prioritising its business interests over values like democracy, public safety and non-violent political dialogue.
In a statement earlier in the year, X said it was its mission to “promote and protect public conversation.
“We believe Twitter users have the right to express their opinions and ideas without fear of censorship. We also believe it is our responsibility to keep users on our platform safe from content violating our rules,” the statement said.
Social media has had a significant and until now, largely beneficial effect on the world. It has brought families closer together, reunited people with long-lost friends and relatives, promoted debate over important issues, and exposed nefarious activities that might otherwise have remained hidden.
For billions it is no longer a luxury, it is an essential service and as such it must maintain standards in much the same way as posts and telecommunications are required to do by Government regulation.
Musk, Zuckerberg and others should be put on notice — vast wealth and influence should never equate to absolute power over institutions that affect the lives of so many people throughout the globe.
Those people need to be listened to and their standards; what they consider to the right and what is wrong, respected. They should not be subjected to the vile machinations of an underclass in the guise of free speech.
If the multi-billionaires fail to listen, then Governments should change the rules for them.
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