Tech giants have year to reform or face legislation over extremist content says former GCHQ head

This file photo taken on November 21, 2016 in central London shows Facebook logos on the screens of a smartphone and a laptop computer.
Tech firms such as Facebook have been accused of doing too little to remove extremist content Credit:  JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP or licensors

Web Giants accused of doing too little to remove terrorist and extremist content have a year to reform themselves or face government legislation, a former director of GCHQ has predicted.

Robert Hannigan suggested tech companies were becoming more powerful than governments, and had a tendency to consider themselves above democracy.

But he said he believed their window to change themselves was closing and he feared most were “missing the boat”.

He predicted that if firms do not take “credible” action by the end of 2018, governments would start to intervene with legislation.

Mr Hannigan, who retired as director of Britain’s electronic spying agency last year, also told the BBC he would be surprised if Russia had not attempted to interfere in the Brexit referendum.

Firms such as YouTube, Twitter and Facebook have received sharp criticism from politicians who have accused them of doing too little to stop their platforms from becoming safe spaces for terrorists and extremists.

The platforms have said they are investing heavily in people and technology to spot and take content including jihadi propaganda, and terror training manuals.

Mr Hannigan said: “I have always thought there is a window for them to reform themselves and to show they are serious and they get the message.

“The window is closing I think otherwise governments around the world will start legislating. I think that’s a shame, I think it would be much better if the Government’s reformed themselves, but I think they are probably missing the boat.”

Robert Hannigan, former director of GCHQ 
Robert Hannigan, former director of GCHQ 

Asked if the tech giants were more powerful than governments, he said: “Well I think you have a really good point there. They are massively rich, they are the planet’s most wealthy organisations and they do have huge power.

He went on: “It’s not suddenly happened, but it’s the nature of the internet and that gives you a global reach and global power and massive amounts not just of money but also data that individual governments don’t have, so yes they are and I think there’s a strange thing in silicon valley, there’s a mixture of cynicism, commercial reality of wanting to make huge profits, but also a bit of arrogance to be honest that they somehow sit above democracy.”

But he said democracy deciding what was appropriate for extremist content online was “better that than some tech company bosses deciding”.

He said: “I think it’s reasonable to say that if they haven’t really achieved something that is credible by the end of this year, that window is going to close for them.”

He said he was worried about the effect of legislation on freedom of speech, but said something needed to be done. “It wouldn’t be my preference, but I think it may be necessary. People are not trusting them and one of the reasons is they are incredibly secretive.”

Asked if he believed Russia had interfered in the Brexit referendum, he said: “The truth is we don’t really know because we don’t know what involvement there was of Russian or Russian-backed entities in advertising for example through social media.”

He went on: “It would be very surprising if they hadn’t at least tried because we know they have tried in France and in Germany to influence elections and we know about of course about the US, so it would be a bit strange if they hadn’t bothered in the UK.”

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