Facebook Cautions Leveson Over Internet Laws

Lord Justice Leveson heard evidence about the difficulties of enforcing internet control

12:30pm UK, Friday January 27, 2012

Facebook has cautioned the chairman of the inquiry into press ethics not to apply too stringent thresholds if he wants the internet to fall into line.

Richard Allen, who is director of public policy for the social network firm in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, told Lord Justice Leveson that 30 million Britons use Facebook and it has 800 million subscribers worldwide.
Lord Allen, a former MP, told the inquiry that every Facebook user has to sign up to a set of rules and regulations about what is acceptable.
That effectively allowed the site to take down anything it deemed unsuitable regardless of its legality.
He went on to tell the inquiry that people would post things on Facebook they would not want in the traditional media.
Lord Justice Leveson responded by putting the view the traditional media puts to him: "Why are you hitting me, why are you controlling me? When there are all sorts of people publishing material on the internet who are not being controlled."
Camilla Wright, editor of celebrity gossip site Popbitch, told the inquiry there had been occasions where newspapers had urged Popbitch to run stories they felt they could not.
The print outlets would then subsequently use her site as a source for their own publication of the same story.

Search giant Google admitted taking some web pages down

She also questioned whether an internet publisher like her would be bound by any new law or regulation in this country if they moved their operations to another jurisdiction.
Earlier Google legal director Daphne Keller explained how it abided by the law of each individual country in which its regional sites operated but crucially added that a search that accessed material illegal in the UK would not necessarily be blocked in other countries.
"If there is a country whose law says that that should stay up, then in that country we would comply with that law," she said.
It is another example of the huge problem facing Lord Leveson if he attempts to spread his proposals beyond the domain of the UK law.
It is clear Lord Leveson is aware of the difficulties he is confronted with.
But having earlier suggested he would not recommend legislation as a way forward he now knows that internet sites would be unlikely to be bound by any non-statutory regulations.
And if he wants to be sure even within the UK of catching most of the publishers online or in print then he will have to look to the law.