U.K. Committee Rebukes Facebook in Call for Social-Media Regulation
February 17 2019 - 7:30PM
Dow Jones News
By Stephen Fidler and Georgia Wells
LONDON -- A U.K. parliamentary committee rebuked Facebook Inc.
in a new report that calls for regulation and intensified scrutiny
of social-media companies.
The report urged a compulsory code of ethics for technology
companies to deal with harmful or illegal content on their sites.
It also called for the creation of an independent regulator that
has the power to launch legal action against companies in breach of
the code that could result in hefty fines.
Large sections of the report were devoted to criticism of
Facebook, which it said had intentionally and knowingly violated
both privacy and anticompetition laws in how it handled user data
and tried to stifle competitors.
The report expands on earlier recommendations from the committee
published in July and follows a monthslong inquiry into tech
companies and issues of privacy, misinformation and the power of
their platforms in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
The committee also published another set of Facebook emails
following an earlier trove released by Parliament in December that
revealed the company's tactics in dealing with competitors and
monetizing its user data.
The committee recommended laws governing privacy, data
protection, antitrust and competition should be used to rein in
companies. "The big tech companies must not be allowed to expand
exponentially, without constraint or proper regulatory oversight,"
it said.
"If companies become monopolies they can be broken up, in
whatever sector," the House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and
Sport Committee said in its final report on disinformation and
"fake news."
It isn't clear how many of the panel's recommendations will be
taken up by the British government, but some are likely to be
incorporated in U.K. government policy proposals to be put forward
in coming months. The U.K. is scheduled to leave the European Union
on March 29, losing its voice in a more influential market covering
500 million people.
Write to Stephen Fidler at stephen.fidler@wsj.com and Georgia
Wells at Georgia.Wells@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 17, 2019 19:15 ET (00:15 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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