ELON Musk and other social media giants must remove fake news to stop the spread of misinformation, a top cop has said.
Retired Met Police officer Graham Wettone told The Sun that companies bear responsibility for allowing falsehoods to be posted online.
When asked whether social media moguls such as Elon Musk need to take a look at how they are handling people like Tommy Robinson online, Mr Wettone said: “I think so.
” I think they clearly earn a very good living out of social media platforms and online platforms and the amount of people that use them these days.
“I think that what comes with that is a responsibility to manage your platforms properly and lawfully and reasonably.
“So I think that there is a burden of responsibility on any of those social media companies to look at the the content that they are allowing to be broadcast or placed onto their sites and review it far more quickly.
“And remove anything and then block the user whenever they can.
“There’s there’s some awful stuff appearing on social media in the last week or so, and it stays on there for days.
“And even if you complain about something, it can take some time for it to be removed and the user to be blocked.
“But I think they need to be a lot better at managing the information. The misinformation around this whole incident has been appalling.”
It comes as…
The Prime Minister has said that a “standing army” of specialist police officers is being assembled to crack down on rioting.
Sir Keir Starmer vowed to “ramp up criminal justice” after an emergency Cobra meeting was called in the wake of a sixth day of disorder which saw rioters storm hotels housing asylum seekers.
Police clashed with crowds one week on from the Southport stabbings as the escalating violence continued over the weekend across the country.
Today Sir Keir summoned ministers and police chiefs for the first Cobra meeting since the riots started.
Speaking after the meeting, the Prime Minister said: “There are a number of actions that came out of the meeting.
Speaking after today's Cobra meeting, the PM said:
There have been hundreds of arrests, people are already being charged and the police will continue to update on the specifics in relation to progress on arrests and charging.
The police are continuing to deploy additional resources around the country at strategic locations where necessary.
The police, home office, DC and NCA, are working to tackle criminality online, to ensure people are prosecuted, and they are working to tackle misinformation and bot activity.
The additional courts protocol is in place to ensure that additional court capacity is in place as is needed.
As the home office announced I think, on Friday, the protective security and mosque scheme has been extended with additional security in place across across the country.
Social media companies have responsibilities under the law. They have responsibilities to keep their users safe.
They have responsibility for ensuring that criminal activity is not on their platforms, and likewise, individuals who post illegal content online should know that they will also be met with the full force of the law.
There is not some sort of immunity by inciting illegal activity online.
There’s no kind of safe space where you can avoid prosecution, just because you are engaging in illegal activity online.
“The first is we will have a Standing Army of specialist public duty officers so that we will have enough officers to deal with this where we need them.
“The second is we will ramp up criminal justice. There have already been hundreds of arrests, some have appeared in court this morning.
“I have asked for early consideration of the earliest naming and identification of those involved in the process who will feel the full force of the law.”
Elon Musk responded to the speech, tweeting: “Shouldn’t you be concerned about attacks on *all* communities?”
The PM and top cops put online and in-person thugs on notice, warning the full force of the law will come down on them.
A No10 spokesperson warned social media bosses that they have a responsibility to guarantee criminal activity doesn’t appear or run amok on their platforms.
They said ministers are in close contact with tech chiefs to “ensure they are meeting their obligations” around racist illegal activity.
