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We have been consistently underwhelmed by the complacent responses we have received from Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Google and other big companies

Yet again it has been left to the mainstream media, politicians and members of the public to act as unpaid moderators of the content – but not before it has been accessed by thousands.

In the past year the Home Affairs Select Committee has been taking evidence from the big social media companies to find out what they are doing to tackle extremism, violence, anti-Semitism and other hate talk spouted online.

We have been consistently underwhelmed by the complacent responses we have received from Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Google and other big companies. In one evidence session after another we have been told they are hiring more staff to monitor content; that they have strengthened their codes of conduct; that more resources are being dedicated to tackling the problem and that the problem is taken extremely seriously.

Yet time after time we find examples of content that the companies admit breach their own guidelines but that remain available for months even after being called out by our committee.