Facebook has introduced a ban for organisations and individuals associated with the far right on its platform, which is a step in the right direction according to Professor Mark Skilton from Warwick Business School. However, the challenge for Facebook doesn't end there.

Professor Skilton says: "Proactive action by Facebook to ban sites that incite violence is long overdue step. While civil right concerns remain on the 'red lines' of free speech it is also a step in the direction of taking moral accountability for social media. It still still raises the problem that platforms like Facebook must not 'self-regulate' as they are not elected by society and neither does it fix the 21st century challenges of multiple voices on these social platforms creating both good and bad that needs stronger automated controls beyond just a 'token gesture' of media announcements banning people. What about banning the millions of transactions that occur from these pages too? How? This needs automation tools as well to implement policies, not just words."

For further information, please contact:

Peter Thorley
Media Relations Manager (Warwick Medical School and Department of Physics)

Email: peter.thorley@warwick.ac.uk

Tel: +44 (0)24 761 50868

Mob: +44 (0) 7824 540863