Government told to urgently protect elections from online interference

The government urgently needs to legislate to protect elections from online interference, senior politicians have said.

British authorities are failing to respond to serious dangers posed by the internet and could be allowing future referendums and other votes to be compromised by foreign actors, the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee has warned.

MPs on the committee said the government was not focused enough on the issues raised by its “online harms white paper”, which aims to make sure tech giants behave responsibly and regulate the content they share.

New legislation to address the matter should be introduced within six months, the committee said in its report, while also demanding MPs be granted statutory veto powers for the appointment and dismissal of the chief executive of the new regulator.

“We’re calling on the government to bring in urgent legislation before the end of the year to protect our democracy against online electoral interference,” said committee chair Damian Collins.

“We know that our electoral laws are not fit for purpose. Political campaigns are fought online, not through the letter box, and our laws need to be brought up to date with the digital age.

“We’ve repeatedly highlighted threats to our electoral system and it’s essential that public confidence is restored.”

Technology companies have admitted regulation will be required to ensure social media and internet companies protect their users. Mark Zuckerberg wrote in an opinion piece in March that regulation would be possible and could prove useful to tech companies as they attempt to combat misinformation and foreign election interference.

But tech firms also cautioned against taking such steps too quickly and allowing other dangers to flourish. Daniel Dyball, UK executive director at Internet Association (IA), a lobbying group that represents most of the world’s biggest technology companies, said: “IA supports balanced, proportionate regulation which achieves everyone’s objectives of keeping people safe online, while also ensuring that the internet continues to deliver benefits to the economy and society.

“The white paper is a real opportunity to get regulation right. It should not be rushed. We stand ready to work with government to ensure that the services that the public love and rely on can continue to operate while ensuring harms are tackled effectively.”

MPs want a new category for digital spending on political campaigns to be introduced and for information about all online political advertising material to be logged in a searchable public repository. They said the government failed to acknowledge the risks of foreign investment, such as the use of digital payments, in elections or the power of unpaid campaigns and Facebook groups.

Voluntary steps by social networks such as Facebook to identify political advertising and those associated with it have been very limited and do not adequately meet public concerns, their report states. The white paper, published in April, targets a range of online harms from child sexual abuse to terrorist content but was criticised for scant detail on electoral interference and online political advertising.

Tom Watson, the Labour deputy leader, has previously argued the measures do nothing to tackle “dark digital advertising campaigners”, while the Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham has said an important “gap” has been missed.

Concerns follow high-profile incidents such as the Cambridge Analytica scandal and suspicious Facebook groups including Mainstream Network, which is accused of spending hundreds of thousands of pounds on the social network to target voters in specific constituencies and promote pro-Brexit messages.

Additional reporting by Press Association