UK Government Accused of "State Censorship" Over Social Media News Plans

The UK govt has been accused of “state censorship” and becoming “Orwellian” after announcing plans in a media green paper to force social media platforms such as YouTube to prioritise news from broadcasters such as the BBC, ITV and Channel Four and down-rank that of independent creators. The paper explores the idea of making public service media content highly visible and easy to discover on social media platforms. The rationale given is that social media has made it easier for inaccurate or manipulated material to circulate at scale and young people increasingly access news on social media where they are being exposed to misinformation. The govt says malign actors frequently exploit events such as the Southport riots to spread disinformation. The paper says algorithms have a significant role in determining what audiences see and prioritise user engagement and popularity over promoting accurate and trustworthy content. AI and deepfakes are also making it harder for audiences to judge whether a piece of content is real or not. YouTube has already pushed back and started notifying UK digital creators that if implemented, it would have to push content by individual journalists, YouTubers and media companies out of sight, hampering their ability to organically grow their community and generate views and revenue. Their content will become hard to be discovered. It is encouraging its users to partake in the public consultation on the proposals. The Free Speech Union has described the proposals as “dystopian”. The Labour Digital Network said it “is a blatant attempt to seize control of social media algorithms and enforce a ‘state-approved’ news feed. We cannot afford to let the state become the sole arbiter of truth online”. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage called it “appalling state censorship”. Conservative MP Nigel Huddleston said: “Who decides who is a trustworthy news provider and what trusted content is? We need to be careful about descending into some kind of Orwellian society. Many people question the BBC’s coverage of politics in general, of trans rights, of Israel, and so on. The BBC doctored a video of President Trump and it fails to call Hamas a terrorist organisation.”