𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

The government has come up with a cunning plan to prop up the flailing establishment media: force YouTube and social-media companies to boost these supposedly ‘trusted’ outlets. So rather than work out why audiences are switching off in favour of online, independent alternatives, the likes of the BBC and Channel 4 may soon benefit from the state’s thumb on the algorithmic scale. Under new proposals led by Labour’s Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy, public-service media outlets would expect greater ‘prominence’ for their content online, particularly during times of social unrest or political controversy, so as to combat ‘misinformation’.

This would totally upend the point of a platform like YouTube, which is supposed to champion ‘content creators’ and allow innovative upstarts to compete — and often eclipse — the old media. YouTube has encouraged its creators to respond to the consultation, noting that the plans would mean their output being “downranked”, “reducing user exposure to diverse content” and posing a “threat to reach and channel growth”.

The rise of online media should be something to celebrate. YouTube, for all its faults, has democratised news and broadcasting — allowing anyone with something to say and a relatively simple mic and camera set-up to speak to millions of people. Across social media, we have witnessed an explosion in free expression that makes the printing-press revolution look quaint in scale by comparison. While, yes, this hands a platform to grifters, slop merchants and those who will prize viral appeal over hard facts, the benefits far outweigh the costs. More speech is never a bad thing. It is how we sort truth from falsehood, and allow the public to decide for themselves.

Any government that truly believed in free speech and media pluralism would recognise that. But this Labour Government is forever haunted by the prospect that someone, somewhere, might be thinking for themselves, or reading something other than BBC News.

Its war on ‘misinformation’ betrays a deep contempt for the public, who Labour sees as putty in the hands of online influencers and in desperate need of being set straight by wiser heads at New Broadcasting House.

Just as Labour is desperate to shackle the press, convinced that fine newspapers like this one are the reason this feckless government is so unpopular, it is also desperate to shackle online creators who, at their best, can hold both the political and media establishments to account.

If the public-service media want to remain relevant in this new era of online competition, they should up their game. This doesn’t have to mean chasing yoofy relevance, and dad-dancing to every viral craze, but instead producing high-quality, trusted journalism, fit for the digital and social-media age.

The issue is, the establishment media, dining out on old glories and desperate to cling on to their privileged positions, have become neither innovative nor trustworthy. When the elites talk about the lack of public trust in the mainstream media they seem to presume it is entirely the public’s fault. As if the problem here is that simple-minded audiences have let the side down by falling under the spell of wrong ‘uns with an X account. Forget the rampant political bias at the

BBC, which whistleblower after whistleblower has attested to. Forget the casual contempt with which Brexit-backing, Reform-curious Britain is so often treated.

And while we’re talking about misinformation, what about the BBC’s tendency, until very recently, to call men ‘she’, even when the men in question were bearded sex offenders? It has also, on occasion, been forced to concede it has put out flagrant, doom-mongering misinformation about climate change. And they wonder why so many common-sensical Brits have been switching off and looking for alternatives in the supposed badlands of the internet.

This Labour government is desperate to prop up the public-service media because it fears and loathes the public. It is ensconced in its own echo chamber, perplexed that anyone could dissent from liberal-left orthodoxy.

You also need not be some conspiracy theorist ranting into a webcam to see that Labour would much rather we were consuming content from these supposedly ‘trusted’ media sources because they are broadly more sympathetic to its programme and worldview.

Whenever the state starts talking about regulating the media, whether online or off, what they are really talking about is regulating you – what you can read, watch, listen to, see and interact with. Don’t let them get away with it.

Tom Slater is Editor of Spiked