Online platforms such as Facebook Inc. have a responsibility to combat the spread of misinformation, U.K. Member of Parliament Damian Collins said at an event on Brexit and the media in London on Oct. 10.
Collins, who heads the House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee, said "social media isn't very good at transparency." Highly partisan companies can flood social media channels and it is not always clear who is behind certain content, the MP added.
Fake news sites being promoted by Facebook get millions of views within weeks, Collins said. This is particularly problematic as "there's a group of people who are happy to get content from [only] Facebook, YouTube etc. and for them, news could become a silo."
Those aged 16-35, for example, are abandoning broadcast news in favor of online sources, Collins said. This demographic watches twice as much YouTube LLC's video platform everyday than the top five broadcast channels combined, he said.
The MP's comments were made during a wider discussion about news coverage on the U.K.'s exit from the European Union. Facebook is used by 26% of those who want the U.K. to remain in the U.K., and 29% of leave voters, Meera Selva, who works for the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, said.
