Facebook and Musk must stop Hamas' «vile, disgusting» content, says Donelan

Ms Donelan says she is shocked by the «terrible content on social media platforms» following the attacks. Photo: Hannah Mackay/Reuters

Social networks including Facebook and Elon Musk's Twitter have been warned to stop Hamas' «vile, disgusting» terrorist videos, the technology minister said.

After the terrorist organization's first attack to a music festival in Israel, Michelle Donelan said she was shocked by the «horrific content on social media platforms» following the attacks.

Ms Donelan said she was particularly alarmed by the «horrific livestream in Facebook, on which the grandmother was stabbed to death.”

Hamas terrorists killed Blacha Levenson at Kibbutz Nir Oz, less than a mile from the Gaza Strip, on Saturday and then posted a video of her bloody corpse on her own Facebook page. The first thing her family knew of her death was a Facebook video.

Ms Donelan added that there was «vile, disgusting content» on Twitter, now renamed X, which was shared by millions of people. it would have a deeply disturbing effect on the British people, especially children, if they saw it.»

The Technology Secretary told The Telegraph that while it was understandable that tech companies were caught off guard by the attack, some of the posts were «not only illegal but certainly terrorist» while officials «kept seeing» more examples of illegal posts.

On Wednesday, the Conservative minister held a video call with social media companies including Meta, Twitter, Google, Snapchat and TikTok, asking them to explain their approach to the conflict.

Companies were asked to write their anti-crisis plan to the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Technology. She said they submitted their responses late Thursday.

Social media has been flooded with videos of violence from the Hamas attack on Saturday and fighting in southern Israel and the Gaza Strip this week.

Social media is also fighting the spread of misinformation and fake videos. as the fight against hate speech and anti-Semitism.

Over the past couple of days, we have seen an increase in the number of daily active @X users in the conflict zone, as well as over 50 million posts worldwide regarding the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel over the weekend.
< br>As events continue to unfold quickly, intercompany…

— Safety (@Safety) October 10, 2023

Ms Donelan said that while tech companies had assured her they understood the importance of cracking down on illegal posts, she had cautioned against doing so.

She said: «If we're watching continued content, I'll be calling them out… we'll be keeping an eye on it.

«Everyone wants to tackle this issue and tech companies have expressed a willingness to do it, we just need to make sure it's will happen now.”

Ms Donelan spoke and said the total investment would be £37 million. new projects in the field of artificial intelligence ahead of the government summit on AI security in November.

These include £5m of grant funding for early-stage AI start-ups, including a clothes waste business and a company developing AI for vineyards.

The European Commission has already launched an investigation into the response of company X, owned by billionaire Musk, to the crisis. When contacted for comment, X sent an automated message saying: “Busy now, check back later.”

In a social media post, X's security team previously said it had «taken action on tens of thousands of posts.» for the dissemination of graphic material, hate speech and hateful behavior.»

On Friday, a Meta spokesman said: «Following the Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel on Saturday, we quickly established a special operations center staffed by experts, including fluent speakers. in Hebrew and Arabic, to closely monitor and respond to this rapidly evolving situation.»

The company added in a blog post: «Hamas is banned from our platforms and we remove praise and significant support for them when we learn about it while continuing to allow social and political discourse.”

The UK is in the process of passing an internet safety bill that will leave tech companies on the hook for billions of dollars in fines. pounds if they systematically fail to stop the spread of terrorist messages or hate speech.