STOP SITTING ON YOUR HANDS

Labour leader promises to make social media giants take responsibility for sickening school violence content

- PAUL HUTCHEON

KEIR Starmer has demanded that social media giants stop "sitting on their hands" and clamp down on sickening school violence videos.

The Labour leader urged online platforms to take "responsibility" and said he is ready to insist on action if he enters Downing Street as prime minister.

The Daily's Record groundbreaking Our Kids... Our Future campaign has called for tough action to curb the epidemic of youth violence.

A central demand is that companies like Facebook and TikTok clamp down on harmful viral content like violent videos. In an interview with the Record, Starmer backed our calls and called on social media firms need to tackle the issue.

He said: "If you run a platform, you bear responsibility for what's on that platform, and they've got to take more responsibility."

He called for the Online Safety Bill going through Westminster to be toughened up to tackle the issue, saying: "There's the opportunity now for votes to be had on platform providers taking more responsibility for what's happening on their platform.

"What we've had for too long is platform providers just sitting on their hands saying, 'We just provide the platform, we have no real responsibility for the content. That's got to change."

 If that fails, Starmer promised to tackle the issue as prime minister.

He said: "An incoming Labour government will look at it.