Social media companies grilled on hate content

The executives of social network companies have been grilled by MPs on the role their platforms played in recent events in Washington which saw a mob break into Congress.

Although none had any radical new policies to offer the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, the bosses did concede that they needed to do more to monitor extremist groups and content such as conspiracy theories.

For example, Facebook said it had removed 30,000 pages, events and groups related to what it called ‘militarised social movements’ since last summer. Despite this, a study from the watchdog Tech Transparency Project found that half of all designated white supremacist groups had a presence on Facebook last year.