Labour’s next manifesto: Danielle Rowley on exploiting new technology for good

I grew up surrounded by what seemed like a revolving door of technological advances. From listening to the hum of dial up at the living room box computer to now having the world available at my fingertips via my phone – I am of a unique generation that can quickly adapt to new technology, but also able to recall how to do things manually and therefore survive any digital Armageddon.

The past 30 years have seen the way we communicate, shop, work, and gather information turned completely on its head – bringing huge freedoms but also opening new challenges and risks. As one of a handful of twentysomething MPs in the Commons, I feel there is a weight of responsibility on us to help face the positive and negative possibilities of the 21st century with fresh eyes.

The Government’s current approach to the modern challenges of social media, citizen journalism and fake news is incoherent, outdated and is still firmly in the thrall of the same old media barons who have called the Tory tune for centuries.

It’s clear that if change is going to come, then once again it is Labour who must step up to the mark. We must harness the opportunities of the digital age - while curbing its worst excesses.

But in confronting the threat of fake news, dominance of new digital players, and ensuring that new journalism is held up to the same standards as old – there is also an opportunity to do everything better.

Although that certainly doesn’t mean the state has all the answers. The comically implausible reporting last week of the Skripal suspects’ “mini-break” to Salisbury on RT shows what can happen when governments control editorial decisions.

There’s no doubt that modern news reporting, as well as the access digital and social media has brought us, is more democratic and open. In many ways, that’s a great thing. But it does risk accelerating the decline of trustworthy independent journalism, particularly at a local level where council meetings increasingly go unreported and pages are filled with free copy from enthusiastic amateurs rather than good old-fashioned professional exposés of wrongdoing.

Innovations such as BBC-funded local democracy reporters are beginning to plug some of those gaps, but I was pleased to see Jeremy Corbyn go further. In his Alternative Mactaggart lecture at the Edinburgh TV Festival last month, Jeremy suggested that the tech giants who have profited so handsomely from the lack of proper regulation of digital media (and paid so little tax along the way) should contribute to an independent fund supporting public interest journalism. For these reasons I also agree that the BBC should be placed on a statutory footing. The current system of regular charter renewal puts (at least theoretical) power in the hands of the government of the day who need to be kept sweet during the process.

But this is all about far more than just journalism and public service broadcasting. It’s about web neutrality. It’s about what skews the results from your search engine of choice, about those creepy adverts that follow you from website to social media feed and about how much control we have over them.

Essentially it is about power: who has the power, how did they get the power, how do we make sure their power is accountable?

So what matters is what kind of connected world we want to live in. The web can be somewhere where we can harness new and wide-ranging facts and opinion, learn about things from all corners of the world at record speeds – but must also be somewhere where corruption doesn’t have free reign, isn’t able to have influence on elections, and where fake news doesn’t spread unchallenged.

I am optimistic that we can exploit new technology for good, but it’s clear we are at a crossroads. It’s up to us to lead the country (and indeed the world) along a path which benefits the many, not the few. 

Danielle Rowley is Labour MP for Midlothian

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