The media committee of the UK parliament has released a report in which it claims that Facebook “intentionally and knowingly violated both data privacy and anti-competition laws,” adding that “[c]ompanies like Facebook should not be allowed to behave like ‘digital gangsters’ in the online world, considering themselves to be ahead of and beyond the law.”
The report is the result of an 18-month study by the committee on the role of social media in the proliferation of fake news. The report recommends the UK government to make social media platforms subject to a code of ethics in order to prevent the spread of disinformation and obscene and illegal content through social media applications. The UK government welcomed the report, but has not indicated if and to what extent it plans to follow the recommendations.
Read more: ‘Digital Gangsters’: UK Wants Tougher Rules for Facebook
