Main opposition Labour party’s spokeswoman says the action was “too little, too late”, accusing the government of having “no idea how to fix the mess they created”…reports Asian Lite News
The British government has announced a new partnership between law enforcement and social media companies to crack down on online content encouraging migrants to arrive in the UK illegally using small boats.
The Conservative government, struggling in the polls a year before the general election, has promised to end dangerous cross-Channel journeys from northern France in small boats but experienced a number of setbacks in delivering its plans.
Plans to controversially send illegal migrants to Rwanda have become bogged down in the courts, while the housing of asylum seekers on a barge in southern England to reduce accommodation costs has experienced several delays.
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The announced partnership between Britain’s National Crime Agency and companies including Meta, TikTok and X (former Twitter) will target content linked to people smuggling, such as offers of false documents, group discounts, free spaces for children and false claims of safe passage, Downing Street said.
“To stop the boats, we have to tackle the business model of vile people smugglers at source,” UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said.
“That means clamping down on their attempts to lure people into making these illegal crossings and profit from putting lives at risk. This new commitment from tech firms will see us redouble our efforts to fight back against these criminals, working together to shut down their vile trade,” he added.
But the main opposition Labour party’s home affairs spokeswoman, Yvette Cooper, said the action was “too little, too late”, accusing the government of having “no idea how to fix the mess they created”.
Immigration — both legal and illegal — has long been a key political issue in Britain and was one of the main battlegrounds of the Brexit referendum in 2016, which saw the country leave the European Union.
More than 45,000 migrants arrived on the shores of southeast England on small boats in 2022 — a 60-percent annual increase — on a perilous route that has been used by more people every year since 2018.
Sunak’s government last month passed a controversial law, criticised by the United Nations, barring asylum claims by anyone arriving via the Channel and other “illegal” routes.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman said, “Heartless people smugglers are using social media to promote their despicable services and charge people thousands of pounds to make the illegal journey into the UK in unsafe boats. They must not succeed. This strengthened collaboration between the National Crime Agency, government and social media companies will ensure content promoting dangerous and illegal Channel crossings doesn’t see the light of day.”
The partnership will build on the close working already in place between government and social media companies, and includes a range of commitments to explore increased collaboration.
Under this initiative, social media companies will look to increase cooperation with the National Crime Agency to find and remove criminal content and step up the sharing of best practice both across the industry and with law enforcement.
The voluntary partnership also includes a commitment to explore ways to step up efforts to redirect people away from this content when they come across it online. This approach is already widely being used successfully by platforms, for example around harmful content promoting extremism or eating disorders, where people are presented with alternative messages to displace, rebut or undermine the damaging content they searched for – diverting them away from harmful messaging and misinformation.
Alongside the partnership, the government will also set up a new centre led by the National Crime Agency and Home Office to increase the capacity and capability of law enforcement to identify this content on social media platforms.
Known as the ‘Online Capability Centre’, backed by £11m funding, its work will focus on undermining and disrupting the business model of organised crime groups responsible for illegal crossings and using the internet to facilitate these journeys by intensifying efforts to combat their online activity.
The centre will be staffed by highly trained technical specialists alongside law enforcement officers and will work by building a clearer picture of the scale of illegal immigration material online. They will work with internet companies to identify more of this material, notifying platforms so they can take the appropriate action. The centre will also focus on developing and building a bank of intelligence around the criminal networks who are promoting people smuggling services online, which will help improve law enforcement’s ability to identify content and in turn help drive investigations.
To harness the potential of new technology such as AI to clamp down on criminals’ content, government will also hold a ‘hackathon’ event with industry experts in order to develop innovative new tools which will better detect people smugglers’ publicly available content online, to help social media companies take it down more quickly.
Government will also intensify the existing work taking place with social media companies ahead of the Online Safety Bill coming into effect.
Once in force, under the Bill social media companies will be required to make sure their systems and processes are designed to prevent people coming into contact with illegal content created by people smugglers, minimise how long this content is available online and remove it as soon as possible once they become aware of it.
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