Sir Paul Marshall, an evangelical Christian and prominent British media owner has called on Elon Musk and the bosses of other social media platforms to publish the algorithms that determine the visibility of posts – and to become more accountable.
Speaking in a lecture at Oxford University, Sir Paul, a leading investor in TV channel GB News, and owner of The Spectator magazine and UnHerd, the news and opinion website, called on the Big Tech platforms to make major changes to the way they operate.
He said, “Social media platforms like X, Bluesky or Meta should be required to publish all the algorithms that they use to analyse or influence our preferences. Elon Musk believes in open source and transparency for manufacturing. He should do the same for X.
“We should all be able to know how the algorithms work which place certain stories and characters in our timeline and not others.”
Sir Paul also called on the platforms to become more accountable. He explained, “Social media platforms should be regulated as common carriers. Under the current regulations, they are exempted from any of the responsibilities of a traditional publisher. They have power without responsibility. Effectively, those who post are treated as publishers.
“The platforms cannot be held to account for what is published, yet they still enjoy many of the powers of a publisher. In particular, they can manipulate the saliency of posts through algorithms or even suspend accounts, even that of President Trump.
“This is wrong, and platforms need to have less power and more accountability. At the very least, there need to be constraints around them such as you would impose on a bank or a railway. They should not be allowed to refuse or suspend accounts or to actively demote the visibility of a post, unless it is in clear breach of the law.”
Sir Paul is a leading philanthropist, supporting a wide range of charities. He is known as a member and supporter of Holy Trinity Brompton Church, London, the home of the internationally-successful Alpha Course.
He was giving a lecture titled ‘Reflections of an Accidental Media Owner,’ hosted by The Pharos Foundation, an Oxford-based research institution and educational charity. Sir Paul outlined his approach to the media, seeking to encourage a wide range of voices in a pluralistic landscape. He strongly criticised the dominant role played by the BBC in the UK.
Reviewing the current media landscape with many voices competing for attention, Sir Paul said: “The dangers of this new ecosystem are clear. Unless we are careful, conspiracy theories will multiply. Truth will be sacrificed even more in the quest for eyeballs, and tribal conflict will become ever more dominant.”
He said: “The key overriding principle for me is to ensure that there is a golden thread of responsibility and accountability running through everything, whether that be the platforms, the publishers or self-publishing individuals.”
Rev Peter Crumpler is a Church of England minister in St Albans, Herts, UK, and a former communications director with the CofE.
