Other campaign groups have also argued that tech-giants' efforts to bring transparency to UK political campaigning have failed. Open Rights Group has highlighted how simple it is for bad actors to subvert Facebook’s in-house political ad transparency rules, and has called on governments throughout the UK to legislate.
The chair of the committee, Lord Puttnam, said: "We are living through a time in which trust is collapsing. People no longer have faith that they can rely on the information they receive or believe what they are told. That is absolutely corrosive for democracy.
"Part of the reason for the decline in trust is the unchecked power of digital platforms.
"These international behemoths exercise great power without any matching accountability, often denying responsibility for the harm some of the content they host can cause, while continuing to profit from it."
In response to the latest Lords report, Electoral Reform Society campaigners have insisted that the UK Government must now take action, describing progress on modernising UK electoral laws to date as “woeful.”
Darren Hughes, chief executive of the Electoral Reform Society, said: “Despite countless regulators, campaigners and committees calling for action, there has been woeful inaction from the government when it comes to updating Britain’s analogue-age campaign rules.
“The government has promised to implement transparency for online political ads. This should be implemented before next year’s major round of elections. ‘In due course’ is not good enough."
Following the release of the report Lord Puttnam, told the BBC that the UK government may not bring in legislation regulating digital platforms until 2023 or 2024 – seven years after new laws were first proposed.
The government has reportedly said that legislation would be introduced "as soon as possible".
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