UK And EU Tell Social Media Sites To Deal With Violent Content And Misinformation

The coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict on social media platforms has come under scrutiny from the UK government and Brussels, as tech firms including X and Meta were urged to deal with a surge in violent and misleading content on their sites.

- Dan Milmo and Lisa O'Carroll

The technology secretary summoned social media executives to demand the removal from their platforms of violent content related to the Hamas attacks on Israel.

Michelle Donelan called the meeting as the EU criticised X , formerly Twitter, about discussion of the conflict on its platform including fake news and the use of repurposed historical footage. The EU’s intervention was followed by a demand to Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, to make sure it was being “vigilant” about illegal content on its platform after the Hamas raids.

Donelan met executives from X, Google, Meta, TikTok and Snapchat to discuss tackling violent and antisemitic content on their platforms . She asked the sites to set out in writing how they would remove any illegal content or posts that breached their terms and conditions.