Pension fund calls for social media crackdown on ‘objectionable’ content

Greater Manchester Pension Fund has called on social media platforms to prevent violent content being streamed

The Greater Manchester Pension Fund has joined calls for social media sites to clamp down on objectionable content.

The pension fund, which manages the pensions of all ten Greater Manchester local authorities' employees, is calling for platforms including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to strengthen its controls to prevent violent content being streamed on its sites.

It comes after the Christchurch shooting in New Zealand, in which 50 people at two mosques were killed by an extremist. 

Video which appeared to be from the attack was uploaded onto Facebook.

The Greater Manchester Pension Fund is one of many across the globe that invests in Facebook.

A report that went before Tameside Council, which runs the fund, last month revealed that the fund had discussed placing more pressure on the company to act quickly in such circumstances.

A spokesperson for the fund told the local democracy reporting service: “It is because of our shareholding in Facebook that we are able to use this with other responsible shareholders to hold company to account.”

They added that the fund’s vice chair councillor Gerald Cooney had met with the chief executive of New Zealand’s NZ fund after the Christchurch shootings. 

It was the New Zealand fund which first called for stricter controls – an initiative that is being backed by several investors around the world.

Greater Manchester Pension Fund’s spokesperson said: “In their discussions they said the Christchurch shootings should be a wake-up call for social media companies and they must take urgent action to strengthen controls and prevent the transmission of objectionable content”.

They say that a UK-wide forum which represents pensions across the country had been increasingly worried about the damage that could be caused by inappropriate or illegal content on social media prior to the attack in New Zealand.

“Hate speech and content inciting violence damage society and threaten human life. These activities also present risks to the companies through potential reputational damage, loss of users, loss of advertisers, greater regulation and legal action and the cost of managing content,” they said.

Mari Eccles, Local Democracy Reporter