Disinformation and ‘fake news’

Inquiry by the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, 15 September 2017 to 16 July 2019. Its page on the Parliament website.

Reports and responses

• 3rd Special Report - Failure of a witness to answer an Order of the Committee: conduct of Mr Dominic Cummings (5 June 2018)
• 5th Report - Disinformation and 'fake news': Interim Report (29 July 2018)
• 5th Special Report - Disinformation and 'fake news': Interim Report: Government Response to the Committee's Fifth Report (23 October 2018)
• 6th Special Report - Mr Kramer's failure to comply with the Committee's Order of the 19 November 2018 (21 November 2018)
• 8th Report - Disinformation and 'fake news': Final Report (18 February 2019)
• 7th Special Report - Disinformation and ‘fake news’: Final Report: Government Response to the Committee’s Eighth Report of Session 2017–19 (9 May 2019)
• Responses to Committee's Report: Disinformation and 'fake news', May 2019 (19 June 2019)

Evidence sessions

• 19 December 2017: Samantha Bradshaw, Oxford Internet Institute, and Professor Kalina Bontcheva, Professor of Text Analysis, the University of Sheffield; David Alandete, Editor, El País, Francisco de Borja Lasheras, Director, Madrid Office, European Council on Foreign Relations, and Mira Milosevich-Juaristi, Senior Fellow for Russia and Euroasia at Elcano Royal Institute and Associate Professor, History of International Relations, Instituto de Empresa, Madrid (at 11.15 am).
• 16 January 2018: Bethan Crockett, Senior Director, Brand Safety and Digital Risk, GroupM EMEA, Eitan Jankelewitz, Partner, Sheridans, and Matt Rogerson, Head of Public Policy, Guardian News and Media; Tim Elkington, Internet Advertising Bureau, Phil Smith, Managing Director, Incorporated Society of British Advertisers (ISBA), and Ben Williams, Adblock Plus (at 11.30am).
• 23 January 2018: Professor Vian Bakir, Bangor University, Professor Stephan Lewandowsky, University of Bristol, and Dr Caroline Tagg, the Open University; Matt Breen, Commercial Director, Media Chain (part of the Social Chain Group), Adam Hildreth, Chief Executive, Crisp, and Dr. Charles Kriel, Corsham Institute (at 11.30am).
• 8 February 2018: Richard Gingras, Vice President of News, Google, and Juniper Downs, Global Head of Public Policy, YouTube; Monika Bickert, Head of Global Policy Management, and Simon Milner, Policy Director, UK, Middle East and Africa, Facebook (at 10.00am); Carlos Monje, Director, Public Policy and Philanthropy, U.S. and Canada, and Nick Pickles, Head of Public Policy and Philanthropy, UK, Twitter (at 11.00am); David Carroll, Associate Professor of Media Design, The New School, Amy Mitchell, Director of Journalism Research, Pew Research Center, Frank Sesno, Director, Professor of Media and Public Affairs and International Affairs, George Washington University, and Claire Wardle, Research Fellow, Shorenstein Centre on Media, Politics and Public Policy (at 1.00pm); David Chavern, President and Chief Executive, New Media Alliance, Major Garrett, Chief White House Correspondent, CBS News, Tony Maddox, Executive Vice President and Managing Director, CNN International, and Kinsey Wilson, Special Advisor to the President and Chief Executive, New York Times (at 2.00pm).
• 27 February 2018: Alexander Nix, Chief Executive, Cambridge Analytica.
• 6 March 2018: Bill Browder, Founder and Chief Executive, Hermitage Capital Management, and Edward Lucas, Senior Vice President, Center for European Policy Analysis; Elizabeth Denham, Information Commissioner (at 11.30am).
• 14 March 2018: Rt Hon Matt Hancock MP, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
• 21 March 2018: Sandy Parakilas, former Facebook operations manager (via video-link).
• 27 March 2018: Paul-Olivier Dehaye and Christopher Wylie, social media experts
• 17 April 2018: Brittany Kaiser, former Director of Program Development, Cambridge Analytica.
• 24 April 2018: Dr Aleksandr Kogan, Cambridge University researcher.
• 26 April 2018: Mike Schroepfer, Chief Technical Officer, Facebook.
• 2 May 2018: Chris Vickery, Director, Cyber Risk Research, UpGuard.
• 15 May 2018: Claire Bassett, Chief Executive, Bob Posner, Director of Political Finance and Regulation and Legal Counsel, and Louise Edwards, Head of Regulations, Electoral Commission.
• 16 May 2018: Jeff Silvester, Chief Operating Officer, AggregateIQ.
• 22 May 2018: Tristan Harris, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Center for Humane Technology (via video-link).
• 6 June 2018: Alexander Nix.
• 12 June 2018: Arron Banks, and Andy Wigmore.
• 31 October 2018: Sharon White, Chief Executive, and Lord Burns, Chair, Ofcom.
• 6 November 2018: Elizabeth Denham, Information Commissioner, and James Dipple-Johnstone, Deputy Commissioner, Information Commissioner's Office; Claire Bassett, Chief Executive, Bob Posner, Director of Political Finance and Regulation and Legal Counsel, and Louise Edwards, Head of Regulations, Electoral Commission (at 11.15am); Guy Parker, Chief Executive, Advertising Standards Authority (at 12 noon).
• 27 November 2018: Elizabeth Denham, Information Commissioner, and Steve Wood, Deputy Information Commissioner, Information Commissioner's Office; Leopoldo Moreau, Chair, Freedom of Expression Commission, Chamber of Deputies, Argentina, Alessandro Molon, Member of the Chamber of Deputies, Brazil, Bob Zimmer, Chair, and Nathaniel Erskine-Smith and Charlie Angus, Vice-Chairs, Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics, House of Commons, Canada, Catherine Morin-Desailly, Chair, Standing Committee on Culture, Education and Media, French Senate, Eamon Ryan, member, Joint Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Parliament of Ireland, Pritam Singh, Edwin Tong and Sun Xueling, members, Select Committee on Deliberate Online Falsehoods, Parliament of Singapore; Ashkan Soltani, tech expertat 4.00pm
• 27 November 2018: Richard Allan, Vice President of Policy Solutions, Facebook; Leopoldo Moreau, Chair, Freedom of Expression Commission, Chamber of Deputies, Argentina, Nele Lijnen, member, Committee on Infrastructure, Communications and Public Enterprises, Parliament of Belgium, Alessandro Molon, Member of the Chamber of Deputies, Brazil, Bob Zimmer, Chair, and Nathaniel Erskine-Smith and Charlie Angus, Vice-Chairs, Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics, House of Commons, Canada, Catherine Morin-Desailly, Chair, Standing Committee on Culture, Education and Media, French Senate, Hildegarde Naughton, Chair, and Eamon Ryan, member, Joint Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Parliament of Ireland, Dr Inese Lībiņa-Egnere, Deputy Speaker, Parliament of Latvia, Pritam Singh, Edwin Tong and Sun Xueling, members, Select Committee on Deliberate Online Falsehoods, Parliament of Singapore