Sadiq Khan Addresses SXSW Festival on Hate Speech on Social Media

Sadiq Khan took to the stage at the South by Southwest tech festival in Austin, Texas to call for greater regulations for technology companies after reading out a string of racist comments he received on Twitter.
The Mayor of London became the first British politician to ever deliver a speech at the festival. He took the opportunity to  highlight the barrage of racist abuse he has received on social media over the years – from being called a “muzzie terrorist” to people sending him death threats.
He read out some tweets but pointed out that he could quite easily “go on and on”. Sadiq Khan also highlighted that by reading out the tweets he hadn’t meant to present himself as a victim but to raise awareness of the possible consequences of such behaviour.
“What happens when young boys and girls from minority backgrounds see this kind of thing on their timelines, or experience it themselves?” he asked while addressing the crowd. Sadiq Khan expressed that the abuse was enough to put anyone from a minority background off a career in politics.
While delivering the speech the Mayor pointed out that governments weren’t doing enough to put a stop to the issue and he called for greater regulations for technology companies.
“There’s been a dereliction of duty on the part of politicians and policymakers to ensure that the rapid growth in technology is utilised and steered in a direction that benefits us all,” said Sadiq Khan during his address.
He also called out social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter saying that they should be doing more to put a stop to hate speech on social media, and had the resources to do so.
“Social media platforms already have a legal obligation to remove content that breaks local laws. But this is not always happening, or happening quickly enough. With the skills and resources these companies have at their disposal – I believe it’s possible to go further and faster.”
> Naomi Round