Washington is poking London over plans to make social platforms shove trusted news higher up their feeds.
A senior US lawmaker has demanded that UK culture secretary Lisa Nandy explain plans to nudge big social media companies toward trusted news sites rather than nuttier fake-news sites.
According to the Financial Times House Judiciary Committee chair Jim Jordan warned the proposals risked creating “a tiered information system”.
Jordan wants a formal briefing by 28 July, when a new culture secretary is likely to be in place under presumptive prime minister Andy Burnham.
Last month, the UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport announced plans to give established broadcasters and media outfits more prominence on Instagram, YouTube and TikTok.
The department says the move is aimed at online misinformation. Under the proposals, news channels including the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 would get more promotion from social media algorithms. Special rules may kick in during periods of increased social unrest.
A government consultation on the plans, published last month, closes on 31 August.
Jordan wrote in his letter to Nandy: “These policies would create a tiered information system in which media outlets that are supported and legitimised by the British government are at the top, with all other outlets and independent journalists below them.”
Jordan said the culture department’s use of “tackling misinformation and disinformation” as a reason for reform was worrying.
He said “European regulators have repeatedly used terms like disinformation and misinformation to exercise greater control over online expression and limit the distribution of politically disfavored speech”.
“The committee’s oversight has already documented several instances in which the UK has attempted to censor criticism of the government and debate over policy issues during periods of civil and social unrest,” Jordan added.
Since Donald Trump returned to the White House last year, US officials and lawmakers have accused the UK and EU of throttling free speech online.
They claim European attempts to regulate hate speech and harmful content are really attacks on national sovereignty.
The FT reported on Tuesday that the US State Department was offering grants of up to $3 million for MAGA-aligned European groups. Those grants are aimed at groups fighting “censorship” and building “civilisational bonds” between the US and Europe.
“Supra-national institutions and governments are using state power to undermine fundamental principles of democratic self-government through overbroad and vague hate-speech laws and online content regulations that police and punish speech while suppressing political participation,” the notice stated.
US tech giants have started lobbying hard against the UK plans. YouTube Europe senior director of government affairs and public policy David Wheeldon said prominence rules would force it “to prioritise government-picked channels over whatever viewers actually came to watch”.
The move risks putting the UK government at odds with US big tech and entertainment outfits again. That fight already includes plans for a social media ban for those younger than 16 and the wider Online Safety Act crackdown on harmful content.
Asked about Jordan’s letter, the culture department said it had “no intention of restricting or censoring content”. It said the aim was to ensure access to “trustworthy information from a range of news providers”.
“The criteria for a ‘trustworthy’ news provider will be decided in an open and transparent manner with regard to protecting media freedom. This will include engaging with stakeholders as part of our Media Green Paper consultation,” it added.
