CONCERNS that social media giants are suppressing debate over coronavirus and lockdown have led a senior MP to call for a new law to regulate them.
Julian Knight – who chairs the digital, culture, media and sport select committee in the Commons – said platforms such as Facebook need to come under a new regulatory framework and be held to account. His intervention comes as a row broke out yesterday (SAT) after Facebook placed a warning on an article by Professor Carl Heneghan, the director of the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine, and his colleague Dr Tom Jefferson, looking at a Danish study which questioned the use of masks. The piece was flagged “False information,” citing “independent fact-checkers”. The article was still possible to read once the warning had been clicked.
Oxford University academic Prof Heneghan tweeted in response: “Here’s what happened when I posted our latest @spectator article to Facebook – I’m aware this is happening to others – what has happened to academic freedom and freedom of speech?
“There is nothing in this article that is ‘false’.”
Dame Helena Morrisey, a Conservative member of the UK House of Lords, seconded the sentiment.
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