Elton John condemns social media companies for failing to 'stem the flow of hate'

Music legend Elton John is tired of seeing hate speech circulate on social media without consequence.

In an interview with BBC's Newsnight, John called for social media users to boycott platforms that don't deal with proliferating homophobia and "disgusting" hate speech. He accused social media companies of failing to "try to stem the flow of hate on the internet," and said a boycott could make them "sit up" and work towards eliminating homophobia on their platforms.

"Companies like Facebook and Instagram cannot pretend they are purely private enterprises. I believe they have a public role and responsibility," he said. "I don't know why they allow it. It's supposed to be free speech, but the things that are on social media are so disgusting that there has to be action taken by the people who own these companies."

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

John said that companies should work on creating policies that rapidly counteract falsehoods and hatred, in order to spread goodness "all the way around the world before falsehood even got its boots on." Watch the interview below, via Newsnight. Summer Meza