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Key events
Streeting accuses social media companies of ignoring their ‘moral duty’ to protect children
In his Today interview, Wes Streeting stressed that he was not just blaming governments for their failure to regulate social media companies more effectively. The firms themselves were also at fault, he said.
Markets are great things. They drive innovation, creativity, new products, and many of the aspects of social media and technology more broadly have have been life changing in a positive way.
But markets do not have a set of morals and values at their heart. That is where the public sphere comes in. That’s where government, and the state, has a role to play to make sure that markets are working to a set of rules that are in the interests of society as a whole.
And I’m afraid what we’ve seen too often in relation to Big Tech is a model which is driven entirely by making the greatest amount of money as quickly as possible, without thinking through the consequences for society.
And I think they have a moral duty to think more carefully about harm. And governments have a responsibility to act, particularly to protect children and young people from harm.
Streeting is on the right of the Labour party and, in a leadership contest, this would be a problem because many party members identify more with the centre left. Social media is a good issue for him in this context because, by attacking the tech companies in this way, he sounds a bit more leftwing.
(This is worth noting, but it would be a mistake to get too conspiratorial. The main reason why Streeting is saying this is, almost certainly, because it is what he thinks.)
Wes Streeting says Starmer ‘behind the curve’ on under-16s social media ban
Good morning. The government has been consulting on whether to follow Australia and impose a ban on social media for under-16s, or whether to opt for other restrictions, and the consultation ends at 11.59pm tonight. Keir Starmer is expected to announce the government’s response soon afterwards. He has already said that there will be action of some sort. Last year ministers were sceptical about following the Australian example, but this is an issue where opinion – both in government, and in society more broadly – has been shifting very quickly.
This morning Wes Streeting, the former health secretary who is running what is in effect a leadership campaign, has intervened. As the Guardian reports, he has said that a social media ban for under-16s “must be the start, not the end” and he has compared the sector to the tobacco industry.
In an interview this morning on the Today programme, Streeting went further, saying that when he was in cabinet he was arguing unsuccessfully for tougher action and accusing Keir Starmer of being “behind the curve” on this issue.
Here are some of the main lines from his interview.
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Streeting restated his claim that social media is like the tobacco industry and suggested that, just as tobacco bosses did in the mid-20th century, social media executives have been suppressing evidence about the full extent of the harm caused by their products. He said:
What we’ve seen from Big Tech is behaviour akin to Big Tobacco … We know from whistleblowers that in the tech industry, among those who are responsible for designing technology, including social media platforms, that are changing every aspect of our lives, they know that the product they’re designing is addictive, they know that it is harmful, and the business model is orientated towards getting kids while they’re young, addicting them with the design features that are designed for addiction, to grab your attention and keep you on their platform for as long as possible.
And then we see the consequences beginning to emerge through the growing body of evidence about the impact of this technology on childhood, whether that is sleep, concentration, learning, health, wellbeing, including mental health.
The harms are evident.
And the precautionary principle should apply here. So yes, it is true to say that the evidence is still emerging, but I think people have got eyes and ears and they can see the consequences of this unchecked harm.
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He claimed governmments around the world had been “asleep at the wheel” on this issue. “Frankly, legislators, regulators, have been asleep at the wheel on this,” he said.
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He suggested that Keir Starmer had been “behind the curve” on this issue. While he was not overly criticial of the PM on this issue, suggesting that governments around the world have been slow to confront social media companies on this issue, he made it clear that he thought the Starmer government could have acted more quickly. He said that he was speaking out now because he was “liberated from the obligations of collective responsibility”. He said the arguments he was making in public today were the ones he was making privately in government, “in a number of cabinet committees and meetings”, and that he “pushed as hard as I could”. He said the government was now moving to a “better position”, but he suggested Starmer could have acted more quickly.
To be fair to Liz Kendall, the science and technology secretary, she came into office [in September last year], she’s gripped this, she’s chosen to run a rapid consultation with the principle of how to implement restrictions, rather than whether. That’s all positive. And I trust Liz Kendall to act quickly following the closure of the consultation today.
And we must, because, as I say, we’re behind the curve.
Of course, there is no actual leadership election taking part in the Labour party yet. Streeting is not officially a candidate. But, in his Today interview, he said that he definitely had the 81 Labour MPs names he needed to launch a leadership challenge and he said he was only holding back to allow Andy Burnham the chance to return to parliament, in the Makerfield byelection on 18 June.
Here is the agenda for the day.
Morning: Keir Starmer is on a visit in East Sussex, to promote a government announcement about a competition review of the childcare sector, where he is due to speak to the media.
Noon: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
After 2pm: MSPs debate a Scottish government motion saying the UK government should give Holyrood the power to hold a referendum on Scottish independence. The vote is due at 5pm.
Afternoon: Starmer is meeting bereaved parents who blame social media for the death of their children at a roundtable event in Downing Street. A government consultation on a potential ban on social media for under-16s ends tonight, and Starmer is expected to government action shortly.
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