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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will finally meet a British government official after a UK parliamentary report this week excoriated the social media site for behaving like "digital gangsters".
according to The GuardianJeremy Wright, British Secretary of Culture, went on Thursday to Facebook headquarters in California to personally meet Zuckerberg. The Facebook CEO has refused repeated requests from the UK Parliament to respond in person to questions about topics such as misinformation and data privacy.
"The UK public has legitimate concerns about their online safety and, as a responsible government, we act," said Wright, head of the UK department for digital, culture, media and sports (DCMS), in A press release. . During his stay in the United States, Wright will also meet representatives from Twitter, Google, YouTube and Apple.
BBC News reports that Wright will only have 30 minutes to talk to Zuckerberg. However, it should be able to retain the attention of the Director General, as the UK is currently preparing new regulations that will make online platforms more accountable for content posted on their sites and applications. Wright said the same thing in his press release, noting that "the era of self-regulation is coming to an end".
The UK is expected to announce its new regulatory framework in the coming weeks. The reports suggest that the framework will not make platforms as accountable for content as traditional publishers, but that there will be new restrictions, as well as a possible independent regulator and a mandatory code of ethics.
In anticipation of the new regulations, some US companies have been more active in monitoring their content. Earlier this month, for example, Instagram introduced new "sensitivity screens" that mask images that involve self-harm. This decision was in part a response to the death of British teenage girl Molly Russell, who died by suicide last year, and whose family has followed several Instagram accounts promoting self harm and suicide.
Facebook is facing new laws that could hurt revenues in Europe. Last year, British Chancellor Philip Hammond announced the introduction of a new "Digital Services Tax" which is expected to come into effect in 2020. Germany has also ordered Facebook to stop combining user data without consent, which could be detrimental to the advertising industry. If Facebook is less willing to self-regulate, more governments will be encouraged to act more directly.
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