The Guardian view on Facebook: power without responsibility | Editorial

Social media cannot ensure they only publish truths. But what about deliberate falsehoods designed to damage?Are social media companies responsible for the lies their users tell? Both the obvious answers, “yes” and “no”, are clearly wrong. Complete responsibility is a bad idea, and impossible in practice: even in China, the home of the largest and most sophisticated censorship apparatus on the web, the internet is expected to slow down markedly in the coming weeks under the burden of combing through it to ensure that no references to the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre are published. And, as the Chinese example shows, there are also considerable difficulties that arise when any one organisation can decide what counts as truth or falsehood. Yet it can’t be right, either, to say that social media companies have no responsibility to exercise the powers they have to remove obnoxious material from their servers. Videos of murder, child abuse and other horrors are routinely and rightly removed. It will be objected that these are horrible precisely because they are not lies – they record things that really happened. But that doesn’t stand up. It is no defence, either in British law, or in any moral sense, to say that a video of atrocity is faked. If it works as propaganda for jihadis, or for child abusers, it will be censored and its originators punished if that’s possible.The platforms have been much more reluctant to act against lies which promote causes... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2019-05-27 17:25:07 UTC ]
News tagged with: #conspiracy theories #alex jones

Other Publishing stories related to: 'The Guardian view on Facebook: power without responsibility | Editorial'


The Guardian view on Facebook: power without responsibility | Editorial

Social media cannot ensure they only publish truths. But what about deliberate falsehoods designed to damage?Are social media companies responsible for the lies their users tell? Both the obvious answers, “yes” and “no”, are clearly wrong. Complete responsibility is a bad idea, and impossible in... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2019-05-27 17:25:07 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #conspiracy theories #alex jones


The Guardian view on children’s books: a restricted view of a wide world | Editorial

Almost a third of school-age children are from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds. But they will still struggle to find characters who resemble themselvesBooks can show us the world both as it is, and as it could be – “mirrors and windows”, as the author Malorie Blackman notes. For... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2018-07-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #bame characters #titles featured #bame protagonists #white boys


The Guardian view on audiobooks: a growing market that asks existential questions | Editorial

When is a book not a book? When it is performed by a starry cast of hundreds. Except it has always been more complicated than thatNews this week of a 17% hike in the UK’s audiobook sales might seem like a niche business story, but it raises an existential question. What exactly is an audiobook... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2024-05-10 17:25:03 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #audiobook sales #market dominance #jk rowling #sit alongside #stephen fry #jim dale #harry potter #audiobook


The Guardian view on the Murdoch handover: Lachlan inherits a dark legacy | Editorial

Through his businesses, Rupert Murdoch pushed a world view with the pursuit of money at its heartThere are not many chairmanships of companies that would so fascinate writers, and television producers, that they would make four series about them. Rupert Murdoch’s long tenure at Fox and News Corp... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-09-22 17:40:41 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #digital age #elon musk #mark zuckerberg #book publishing #news corp


The Guardian view on Heartstopper: a phenomenon that defines a generation | Editorial

Alice Oseman’s tale of queer romance is a global success story built on fans who want to feel good about themselves in tough timesAfter boy met boy in a crowdfunded graphic novel set in a British grammar school in 2018, hearts began to flutter and tills started to ring around the world. This... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-08-03 17:41:27 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #alice oseman #feel good #tv adaptation #revealing light #graphic novel


The Guardian view on Bloomsbury’s success: publishing wizardry | Editorial

The Harry Potter publisher ascribes its record profits to a hunger for affordable diversion. That’s the magic of booksIn the gloom of a UK economy teetering on the edge of recession, a glittering puff of smoke wafted up last week from the publisher that will for ever be associated with Harry... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-06-04 17:25:05 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #record profits #uk sales #cut back #guardian view #jk rowling #boy wizard #nigel newton #ebooks #harry potter


The Guardian view on US book bans: time to fight back | Editorial

Censorship is surging thanks to an organised rightwing minority targeting books on LGBTQ and Black characters and issues“A book is a loaded gun in the house next door,” warns a character in Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury’s dystopian vision of an America where books are considered so dangerous they... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-04-13 17:21:33 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #school year #school boards #ron desantis #multiple titles #library association


The Guardian view on the book publishing industry: no one size fits all | Editorial

The failure of a recent bid to merge two large publishing companies shines a light on a central issue of cultural powerDespite a rise in self-publishing, commercial publishers are still the main gatekeepers of what arrives on our bookshelves. As such, they have great cultural and – if a book... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2022-11-04 18:25:28 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #book takes #planned merger #simon schuster #publishing market #2bn deal #penguin random house #publishing companies #book publishing


The Guardian view on Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover: the unfulfilled promises pile up | Editorial

The world’s richest man promises more than he has delivered. His social network purchase is likely to go the same wayElon Musk is a fan of the science fiction writer Isaac Asimov. When his spacecraft company SpaceX successfully sent its Falcon Heavy rocket payload into orbit around the sun in... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2022-11-01 18:50:19 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #digital copy #classic work #foundation trilogy #human life #science fiction


The Guardian view on BookTok: a welcome disruptor of the status quo | Editorial

The social media platform is revolutionising bookshops and galvanising publishers. Enjoy it while it lastsThe bestselling book in the UK last week, and of the year so far, is an American novel that was published in 2016. If that sentence sounds implausible, the odds are you have not yet caught... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2022-09-04 17:25:02 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #guardian view #covid pandemic #colleen hoover #nielsen #bestselling book


The Guardian view on social media’s metaverse: it may remain science fiction | Editorial

The online virtual reality experience that almost every tech giant today wishes to commercially exploit may not catch onIn the 1992 sci-fi dystopia Snow Crash, the author Neal Stephenson imagined a bleak 21st century where the collapse of the global economy had seen governments fall and their... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2022-02-07 19:11:48 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #global economy #wireless internet #gig economy #microsoft announced #mark zuckerberg #virtual worlds #science fiction


The Guardian view on changes to copyright law: book lovers beware | Editorial

A government proposal to ease restrictions on the sale of imported cultural works risks harming a world-class industryThe hoopla around the release of Sally Rooney’s new novel on Tuesday – with bookshops opening early, and queues of shoppers eager to lay their hands on Beautiful World, Where Are... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2021-09-07 18:00:33 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #kazuo ishiguro #bernardine evaristo #limited exceptions #reduce prices #publishing industry


The Guardian view on the writing business: readers must ultimately benefit | Editorial

People want stories and that means cultivating a publishing ecosystem where big and small can flourishThis week both the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority and the Department of Justice in the US announced investigations into the planned $2.2bn acquisition of the publisher Simon &... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2021-03-28 17:25:47 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #bookseller survey #household names #online shopping #dragged back #bookseller #harpercollins #pan macmillan #bloomsbury #bertelsmann


The Guardian view on a book glut: to the victor go the spoils? | Editorial

Many publishers are enjoying record sales – but not all. We must take care that those with the biggest names and deepest pockets are not the only beneficiariesAs the weather turns and the days shorten, as trees bend low with fruit and blackberries darken the hedges, bookshops are bracing for a... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2020-08-23 17:25:02 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #trade books #guardian view #biggest names #bumper crop #super thursday #50% increase #bookshop


The Guardian view on lockdown reading: more than escapism | Editorial

It’s no surprise that people read a lot when stuck at home. But novels are more than a way to kill timeIt’s no surprise that keen readers have looked to books for historical analogues or literary insights into the coronavirus outbreak. Sales of the English translation of Albert Camus’s 1947... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2020-04-19 17:25:44 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #albert camus #recent weeks #don delillo #lucy hughes-hallett #lockdown began #libraries


The Guardian view on new stories: helping others tell tales | Editorial

Everyone’s favourite stormtrooper will be developing new movies with Netflix – one of several creators who have turned to enabling the work of othersToni Morrison knew a thing or two about stories. In 1994 she saw the “political correctness debate” as being about “the power to be able to define.... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2020-03-15 18:32:03 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #guardian view #production company #recent announcement #record label #under-represented communities #literary agency #penguin random house


The Guardian view on arts prizes: a 20th-century phenomenon? | Editorial

This year’s Booker and Turner prizes tell us artists and even judges are repudiating the winner-takes-all award. It may be time to find new ways to celebrate the artsThe past year has been a curious one for cultural prizes. The Booker, when the judges failed to agree on a single winner, ended up... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2019-12-15 18:25:01 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #guardian view #put forward #dating back


The Guardian view on Amazon’s football coup: beware tech giants bearing gifts | Editorial

The US experience of watching sport online should ring alarm bells for those who prize the Premier League’s ability to bring people togetherIn the late 1960s, the American author and tech seer Richard Brautigan wrote lyrically of “a cybernetic meadow / where mammals and computers / live together... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2019-12-02 18:49:42 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #premier league #late 1960s #prime service #american author


The Guardian view on extremism online: who will guard the watchdogs? | Editorial

The social media advertising giants of the web have great power. When they admit this, they will come under pressureThe decision by Facebook to ban six prominent figures of the alt-right movement, along with Louis Farrakhan, from both Facebook and its subsidiary Instagram, is a significant... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2019-05-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #louis farrakhan #significant development #traditional publishers #held responsible #social networks


The Guardian view on fiction vending machines: attention seekers | Editorial

If they succeed in distracting commuters from their smartphones, short story dispensers will be a welcome addition to the landscapeCan fiction miniatures dispensed through slots lure commuters away from their smartphone apps and social media feeds into the imaginary worlds created by authors... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2019-04-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #modern twist