Facebook, Google, Twitter face grilling by U.K. lawmakers over online safety
Global News
Governments on both sides of the Atlantic want tougher rules aimed at protecting social media users, especially younger ones, but U.K.'s efforts are much further along.
British lawmakers grilled Facebook on Thursday over how it handles online safety as European countries move to rein in the power of social media companies, with the tech giant’s head of safety saying the company supports regulation and has no business interest in providing people with an “unsafe experience.”
Representatives from Google, Twitter and TikTok also will be questioned by members of a parliamentary committee scrutinizing the British government’s draft online safety legislation.
Governments on both sides of the Atlantic want tougher rules aimed at protecting social media users, especially younger ones, but the United Kingdom’s efforts are much further along. U.K. lawmakers are questioning researchers, journalists, tech executives and other experts for a report to the government on how to improve the final version of the online safety bill.
Antigone Davis, Facebook’s head of global safety, defended the company’s handling of internal research on how its Instagram photo-sharing platform can harm teens amid questioning from U.K. lawmakers.
“Where does the buck stop?” asked Damian Collins, the lawmaker who chairs the committee.
“It’s a company filled with experts, and we all are working together to make these decisions,” Davis said. She added that “we have no business interest, no business interest at all, in providing people with a negative or unsafe experience.”
Davis said Facebook is largely supportive of the U.K.’s safety legislation and is interested in regulation that gives publicly elected officials the ability to hold the company accountable.
Collins and other lawmakers pressed Facebook to provide its data to independent researchers who can look at how its products could be harmful. Facebook has said it has privacy concerns about how such data would be shared.
Bird flu has spread far and wide, infecting a range of species like chickens, skunks, cows, foxes and polar bears. But it's the pigs that have experts on high alert.
The CFIA has recalled E. coli-tainted carrots, following a U.S. health warning about the contaminated produce linked to one death and dozens of illnesses.
Health Canada said there was an issue with the braking system of the Stokke YOYO baby stroller, sold between August and October this year.
These editorial stories and interviews will focus on the people, companies, research, and innovations leading the environmental and sustainable movement in B.C.
Bennett had just returned from the school run last week when she found the mom and a baby raccoon unconscious, with one of the babies sleeping on the furniture.
B.C. health authorities have announced the first case of a human avian flu infection acquired in Canada, with the teenage patient in critical condition in hospital.
People have been hearing a lot about H5N1 bird flu — or highly pathogenic avian influenza — since a B.C. teen became the first human to get the virus in Canada and is in hospital.
The Liberal government and the NDP negotiated the substance of a pharmacare bill as part of their now-defunct supply-and-confidence agreement.
Kennedy ran as an independent presidential candidate but gave Trump his endorsement with a promise to have a role in health policy in the next Trump administration.
Emergency services are at the scene of a train derailment Thursday morning on Montreal's south shore, where they are urging citizens to stay away from the area.
"I was yelling at them saying get the F** away it’s a wild animal," resident Josh Merrin told Global News. "Sorry about my language."