BBC chair Richard Sharp is expected to back calls for tighter regulation of the world’s major social networks and platforms to crack down on disinformation and fake news.
In a speech to the Royal Television Society convention on Wednesday, Sharp will say that there are “urgent questions” that need answering as “closed media environments” have allowed conspiracy theories, lies and falsehoods to spread rapidly.
“Where once these theories would bubble away in private echo chambers, COVID has created the perfect conditions for them to boil over into the mainstream – fed by algorithms that are great at recognising viral potential but not so good at spotting nonsense,” Sharp will say. “The pandemic and ‘infodemic’ that has spread alongside have left us in no doubt of how vulnerable we all are. But it has also suggested that some are more vulnerable than others.”
Sharp will say that the “magnetic draw” of conspiracy theories has grown stronger and has real-life consequences on 5G masts being pulled down, reducing vaccine take up or “or leaving the results of democratic elections in doubt.”
Sharp, an ex-banker with close ties to the current U.K. Conservative government, especially Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, was appointed earlier this year.
At the convention, which is taking place in Cambridge, Sharp is expected to call for the U.K. Communications Act 2003 to be replaced with modern legislation fit for the digital age and say now is the time to introduce greater...
Read Full Story: https://variety.com/2021/tv/global/bbc-chief-social-media-regulation-1235064720/
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