Speeches by Darlington.

“I don’t even know what to say to that.”

“You are saying that the statements I read earlier, which are clearly not proven in scientific fact, are now acceptable on all Meta platforms.”

“You cannot possibly think that statements like those, where there are scientific facts that prove otherwise, are there for anything other than causing and inciting harm, whether online or in-person harm, can you? Do you think it is a genuine debate about whether or not trans people are real, or whether they are mentall…”

“I am conscious that I am taking up a lot of time. I just want to ask a question of Meta. In December, Meta submitted some written evidence to this Committee stating that its third-party fact-checking programme was a “key part” of its approach to combating misinformation. How does that fit with the new programme coming …”

“If people use the TikTok tools to generate the video, it will automatically do that. That is not necessarily how content is created.”

“But can it do it today?”

“Can an algorithm and AI checking, in terms of moderating content—all three companies are using it, but the question is to you—identify and assess AI-generated material without a human factor?”

“You say that you do not want people to be misled by political or financial issues. This clearly falls into that category, right?”

“On this account, it is not their only video; it is repetitive, featuring Keir Starmer in AI doing various things. You cannot reach 2.8 million views without some level of boost from the algorithm, can you?”

“I want to turn next to Alistair and TikTok. Looking at your own guidelines, I want to understand how the algorithm catches this and how it changes it. They say that synthetic or manipulated material showing realistic scenes must clearly be disclosed, and do not allow synthetic media of any real private figure. You allo…”

“Okay. Let’s move on. The thing is that these are not unique. I am not the only MP who gets these kinds of messages on these accounts, reports them and no action is taken.”

“Can you assure the Committee that this account will be removed?”

“In November, I posted a tweet about my petition to save my local post office. This was my reply from one person: “You are a traitor to the British people and you will swing oh so slowly on a gibbet.” I had to look up what a gibbet is. It is not a pleasant thing. It was reported as harmful and violent speech in violatio…”

“Right. How does one become a community note contributor? Are you paid in the role? Is it a human fact-checking role?”

“Another blue-tick account: “Jess Phillips is a rape genocide apologist.” Is that true?”

“Let’s see if you have an opinion on any of these. Apologies for some of the language coming out here: “This cunt is openly screwing everyone, and he doesn’t care why. We rise up and openly shoot Keir Starmer as he needs to step down, or the people of the UK will force him to. If not, I will”, swear emoji, swear emoji, …”

“T2. I thank the Minister for her previous answers, and for her commitment to reducing the number of asylum claimants in the UK. As she will know, the UK is spending 27% of its official development assistance on housing asylum claimants—almost double the OECD average. Our overseas spend was cut by the previous Governmen…”

“Given those opportunities and given that we are an attractive environment, do we have the right strategies to attract that global talent to the UK? Should we be looking at additional incentives to attract some of those scientists over to our shores?”

“Life sciences is one that you have direct in terms of the industrial strategy. It is also one of our important missions in improving health. I want to understand a little bit more about where you see some of the fantastic science work that we are doing, the links with the Biobank, and the opportunities for universal sc…”

“Thank you, Patrick, for being here, and Alex. One of the key things that I am sure is on your plate are the changing geopolitics and attitudes to different science and innovation across the world. In particular, in the last few weeks, we have seen the hollowing out of NIH. We have seen differing attitudes to vaccines, …”