The US asked Britain to drop its plan to promote trusted news
The United States has asked Britain to abandon a plan to make social platforms promote trusted news. Its central argument is not about Britain at all.
The submission sits on the US Embassy website in London, dated 2 September. It answers a consultation on the government’s media Green Paper, which opened on 23 June. That paper proposes exploring legislation to make public service media, and possibly other news publishers, prominent in users’ feeds.
The language is not diplomatic hedging. “We ask that the UK withdraw any plans to mandate that platforms algorithmically amplify government-preferred media,” the document says.
The line that has not been reported
Buried in the free-speech section is the argument with the longest reach.
A mandate of this kind, the US writes, “could establish a template that authoritarian regimes could invoke to justify more control over online content”.
That is a claim about precedent rather than about...
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