Closed in 1964 but still running freight. It means towns like ashington will have a Train Station after decades without one. Although its welcome, some say much more is needed. The northumberland line is one piece of the jigsaw, but if you dont invest in other critical infrastructure, in particular in the wider rail network, then the north east will never benefit from projects like h52 and Northern Powerhouse rail. Both services will run on diesel initially, rather than greener alternatives. The government say they are looking to bring back more lines previously cut. Now its time for a look at the weather with alina jenkins. Further snow showers for the north
and west of scotland overnight. Wheels, may beat the far south of northern ireland. Temperatures as low as minus eight celsius across north east scotland. Rain, sleet and snow continues slowly eastwards through the morning for wales, southern england, parts of northern ireland. Further north, mostly dry with some sunshine but further wintry showers in the north and west of scotland. Another cold day. Looking ahead, on monday another cold day with a few wintry showers. It turns wetter, windier and milder from the west through next week. Hello, this is bbc news. The headlines more than 1,500 people have been arrested in russia
as police crack down on protests by supporters of the jailed Opposition Leader alexei navalny. One of those detained is mr navalny� s wife, yulia, who was at a demonstration attended by thousands in moscow. Senior doctors call for changes in the vaccine rollout in the uk. They want the 12 week gap between the first and second dose of the pfizerjab to be halved. What we do need to be assured of is that people are properly protected because if the level of protection with the second dose is compromised by a longer delay, that, of course, will impact on the doctors that i represent because they are facing the virus at close quarters as they look after patients. The leader of welsh conservatives, paul davies, has resigned after admitting drinking on the senedd estate days after a pub alcohol ban was enforced. And, the american broadcaster and talk show host, larry king, has died at the age of 87. Now on bbc news, in the weekjoe biden is sworn in as president , click looks at what this could mean for social media. This week, as 45 becomes a6, well talk to some of the most important voices in social media to find out what the new president might do to put right the wrongs of big tech. Hey, welcome hope you are you doing 0k and, wow, what a momentous week
in World Politics this has been. Whether or not youre in the United States, whats happened there will affect us all. I, Joseph Robinette bidenjr, do solemnly swear. Lara lewington joe bidens become the 46th president. Of the United States. Lots about the last few weeks has broken with convention and almost broken democracy in the process. It reminded everyone just how fragile democratic systems are, even at the heart of the free world. And at the grand finale of this election, the spotlight is now firmly on big tech and their practices, having shown the world the havoc, the mistruths and conspiracy theories that fake news can bring. Lets begin to listen to one another again, show respect to one another. And we must reject the culture in which facts themselves
are manipulated and even manufactured. Applause. As President Biden takes office, many, including the tech giants themselves, know that change is inevitable. But how much and what that change is going to be is still unclear. James clayton has been investigating what may be in store for them in the era of biden. Heres a striking thing about many who broke into the capitol hill complex. Take it back lets go armed with phones, many live streamed their actions or took selfies showing off their entry into the inner sanctum of american democracy theatre designed for social media. Big techs role in what happened onjanuary 6 cannot be underplayed. Sure, donald trump used social media to stoke up the mob. Sure, smaller players like parler and gab egged on the crowd. But conspiracy theories and extremism on mainstream social media is how many
people wound up here. Many companies, like twitter, for years have been protected by a tiny piece of legislation known as section 230. Section 230 was written in the mid � 90s. Its been instrumental in the development of many of the services we know and love. The internet really wouldnt be the same without it. Its the reason we can upload any video we like on youtube or post freely on places like facebook and twitter. Heres the crucial sentence. No provider or user of an Interactive Computer Service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider. Or, in other words, big tech cant get sued for what you and me do on their platforms. January 6 was a watershed moment, notjust for the us, but for big tech, too the likes of twitter and facebook because it now seems likely, if not inevitable, that section 230
is going to be replaced. This is what President Biden had to say to the New York Times last year. The New York Times cant write something you know to be false and be exempt from being sued. But he Mark Zuckerberg can. Section 230 should be revoked immediately. But there are dangers with removing section 230. I took him at his word when he says he wants to repeal it, that hes going to engage in the conversation. I hope he doesnt attempt to actually outright repeal it, because we have to remember section 230 also protects small tech platforms, not just the dominant ones, from lawsuits and we dont want to kill small tech platforms before they get a chance to grow and compete. The case of Ashli Babbitt is why many politicians now feel its time to act. She was shot and killed as she broke into the capitol complex a wild thing to do with a tragic outcome. But what had driven her to do such a thing . Well, its likely a myriad reasons. But what we do know is that she was keen on twitter. She tweeted just the day before her death. Her feed is filled with allegations that the election was stolen, that a revolution was on its way. Sensational, sometimes fantastical tweets tweeted and retweeted over and over again. In the last few weeks before the capitol insurrection, shed been retweeting non stop some of the biggest conspiracy theorists and qanon supporters. I dont think that jack dorsey is responsible for the fact that she individually is tweeting information that may or may not be false. But what i would love to know is where did she go from being a disillusioned air force vet trying to adjust to society in the civilian world to full blown conspiracy theorist who is willing to engage in an act of insurrection . Like i said, you can consider yourself put on notice, me and the American People i am so tired of this Ashli Babbitt was engaging with conspiracy theories in her case on twitter that simply werent true. Now, we dont know what content was being suggested to her but what we do know is that some believe that the algorithms that Companies Like twitter are using should be looked at by biden. They are providing tools whether its the recommendation engines, the algorithms that decide how they curate content, the targeting tools that they are selling to advertisers to target communities with messages theres no transparency into how any of those things work. And thats what i would love to focus on, if we could figure out how to build in transparency requirements, and whether that becomes a government Oversight Board or a Civil Society oversight, whatever it looks like, these things cant keep happening in a black box. When biden criticises big tech,
he often picks out one company and one company alone facebook. For him, its become almost a byword for a Free Internet gone wrong. Heres another quote from joe biden about facebook from that New York Times interview. Facebook is propagating falsehoods they know to be false. Theres no editorial impact at all on facebook. None. None whatsoever. Its irresponsible. Its totally irresponsible. And then, in an open letter to the company before the election, he asked them to do more to take down fake news. It didnt used to be this way facebook execs reportedly had a Good Relationship with the 0bama administration but then 2016 happened cambridge analytica, the trump campaigns ruthlessly effective use of the social network, and things have gone downhill since then. Ok, im recording. Sarah miller is director of the American Economic liberties project and also happens to be onjoe biden� s
transition team. She believes Mark Zuckerberg in particular should be worried. He is not a welcome figure at the Cocktail Party any more and i dont think he has been for a long time. There is not a lot of love lost there. I think facebook is really kind of broadly seen as the most prominent villain, kind of, among all the tech monopolists. And i dont think thats any different, kind of, among most biden officials. The will of the people has been heard so, what could joe biden do when it comes to big tech and social media . For more than a century, the us has had tough anti trust laws. These were implemented after a handful of companies, or trusts, came to dominate the utilities of the us economy in the early 20th century. The same anti trust charge is now laid firmly at the door of big tech. There are already two anti trust lawsuits in the us one against google, accusing the company of dominating search and advertising,
and one against facebook, accused of using a buy or bury strategy to hurt rivals. Many democrats want biden to go much further. Democracy has prevailed yeah, a number of democrats have called for breaking up dominant tech platforms. Whether youre talking about Elizabeth Warren or others, they theyre looking at the marketplace and they see that theres not a lot of competition rising up, not a lot of choices for consumers, and a lot of accusations that i think these investigations have started to shine an even brighter light with on the evidence that theyre finding. Thats right. Within the democrats, its a widely held view that big tech doesntjust need its wings clipped, that Companies Like google and facebook may have to be split up. So i think that were kind of going into an administration where there is a high degree of sophistication around the problems and there
is a lot of outside momentum that is going to push them, even if they themselves dont feel comfortable, maybe, being in the leadership position here, that is going to push them in the right direction, and that includes aggressive action in congress. So, would joe biden really go that far . Yael eisenstat is a former security advisor to joe biden. 0n the one hand, ive i do think he has an incredible ability to really and i know this sounds cliche but to really bring multiple voices together to try to solve things, right . To really he understands how government works, he understands how to get things done. If the United States wants to continue to thrive as a democracy, whether we like it or not, we are going to have to figure out how to represent all americans, not just our own opinions. And biden is great at that. That said, its a different time, right . Things are so much more extreme now, so i dont know which direction hell choose. I suspect, though, that he will always try to bring the most diverse set of voices as possible to the conversation. This one is tough, though, because there, for so long, has been such a Strong Influence from Silicon Valley leaders and everyone that theyve funded on how we should be attacking these issues, that it is going to be a very big challenge. The whole point of enforcing anti trust laws, and perhaps even breaking up big tech, is to introduce more competition to places like San Francisco and Silicon Valley that have for years been dominated byjust a handful of mega Tech Companies. That could, in theory, usher in a new period of tech innovation, but big tech has big pockets. Its likely theyre going to fight this all the way. Hello, and welcome
to the week in tech. It was the week that ex Google EngineerAnthony Levandowski was amongst a flurry of president ial pardons signed by donald trump in his final days in office. Levandowski had been sentenced to 18 months injail for stealing trade secrets relating to driverless cars. And israeli outfit storedot has, for the first time, factory produced an electric car battery which can fully charge injust five minutes. Contemporary charging infrastructure would need to be upgraded, though, to allow for five minute charging. So richard branson� s other Space Company the one that deals with commercial stuff, not super wealthy space tourists hasjust marked a major milestone. It has successfully launched satellites into space. Virgin 0rbit makes use of an old boeing 7117 airliner adapted to launch a rocket from its wing, which then blasts off to deliver a payload in this case, ten small satellites. Not to be outdone, elon musk� s spacex managed a record breaking eighth reuse
of its falcon 9 rocket this week as well. And finally, do not adjust your tv set, phone, tablet or computer screen. The images you are seeing here are not real but a graphics test from British Developers ninja theory from its new game project mara. Details about the game are scarce but we do know it will be set in one apartment and draw on elements of the horrors of the human mind. I dont know about the horrors of the human mind, but those surfaces look like an absolute nightmare to keep clean as we heard from james, theres a lot of uncertainty around how President Biden will tackle the issues raised by big tech. One of the main ones is how the social media giants should balance freedom of speech and information with the dangers that can arise from unfiltered speech and misinformation. One of facebook� s ideas
was to set up an independent Oversight Board, which it says would help guide it as it decides how to deal with contentious material. And it has been called into action to review one of, if not the most contentious issue that facebook has ever faced the indefinite suspension of a sitting president s account. I spoke to one of the board members, alan rusbridger, about what comes next. I must slightly watch my language in. Being perfectly careful not to prejudge it, because it is an immensely significant thing. The silencing of donald trump across social media his megaphone for the last four years has brought another uncomfortable truth to the fore that the execs ofjust a few Tech Companies have control over whose voices are heard around the world. How do you feel about the power that, basically, about four men in Silicon Valley have . I feel that its frightening. And i dont know them, but i suspect they think its frightening, too. You know, these are, by and large, engineers who are brilliant at engineering. And suddenly, belatedly, theyve woken up to the fact that theyve got these multiple new dimensions to what theyve unleashed, and i think its been sobering for them. I think its entirely right that they should be held to account, they should be criticised, they should be investigated and that a very fierce searchlight should be shone on them in order, if nothing else, to make them aware of the magnitude of their power and responsibility. And jack dorsey, twitter� s ceo himself, said that he feels that its set a dangerous precedent. The social media companys actions have also undermined their claims that they are simply impartial platforms who are shielded from
what their users post, rather than publishers who have ethical and legal responsibilities. We havent even got a word to describe what they are. We cant describe. We cant decide if theyre publishers or platforms. There isnt a sort of word in the english language that describes this entity, but nevertheless, they are kind of gatekeepers. And as weve seen in the last month or so, they are exercising rather Old Fashioned kinds of editorial control. And so the job of the gatekeeper in creating a manageable and trustworthy and reliable flow of information are going to be crucial. And they have to start making decisions. Are they simply there for the profits . Have they got a different kind of function . This aspect of Public Service that i think will be more and more important with news, thatjust as a society cant function without clean water,
it cant function without clean information, and that the platforms, publishers, the giants, whatever were going to call them, are, i hope, going to take this responsibility more seriously than they have in the past. Do you think in five or ten years� time, profit will win out again and we will have all forgotten, or not quite been clear on the role of the media and social media and how good or bad things were that time ago . My sense is that the huge profits that motivated and drove media owners and gatekeepers in the past are simply not going to be there. They might be there for a tiny handful of companies. It would be lovely, wouldnt it, if people went back to paying and if there was enough advertising to support real news . But you have to question whether thats going to happen. And they have to have a plan b, and plan b is a question for society as a whole. Having seen what happens when you have information chaos. Are you prepared to pay in some way to have the news that staves off that kind of chaos . Now, whether thats going to be a direct subsidy, indirect subsidy, whether its going to be a form of philanthropy, a form of taxation, these are all going to be debated in the next ten years. But at the heart of it is that question are people prepared to pay for real news . Is real news a business . Now, there is one immense information source which doesnt rely on advertising. Instead, its funded by donations from its users and charitable grants. Im talking about wikipedia. And last week, the 13th most visited website celebrated its 20th birthday. In its early days, many people struggled to get their heads around the idea of an encyclopaedia that could be edited by anyone. After all, it opens up the risks of vandalism
or misinformation some of it deliberate, some just a matter of opinion and some poorly researched. My page used to say that at my wedding, i fulfilled a lifelong ambition of being cut in half by a magician. Really . What, you mean that didnt happen . No, its completely untrue but on more important issues, with the public� s trust in online information at an all time low, is wikipedia managing to maintain readers� confidence . The free online encyclopaedia now hosts 55 million articles. It can be accessed in over 300 languages and its read 15 billion times every month. Thats 8,000 times a second as social media sites have battled disinformation, polarisation and accusations of censorship, wikipedia has
fought hard to maintain the trust of its readers and to keep its role as a neutral arbiter and trusted resource. It does feel heavy to our community. We know we have a responsibility to get it right, and particularly in this era where theres so much misinformation, disinformation that circulates on social media, to be very vigilant about quality of the sources that we rely on and to be really thoughtful that, hey, we do have a place in the world. People trust us to at least try to get it right. And thats, you know. Thats more than you can say for some places. I have a lot of criticisms for how the social Media Companies have handled things, but theyve asked for a tough job, which is to say, heres a little box, say whatever comes to your mind. What do you think . And it turns out a lot of people think awful things and say awful and mean things and so on, whereas we have a much easierjob. We are writing an encyclopaedia, thats it. And therefore we do have a responsibility to get it right. But its a lot easier for us. Everybody knows what a good encyclopaedia article should be. It should be neutral, it should be well written, it should have quality sources, it should be accurate. So, we all have a shared vision of where we want to get to, whereas in social media, there is no simple shared vision. Itsjust people yelling at each other. And people do go to wikipedia for information on major subjects, so its crucial that its correct. During the covid 19 outbreak, the encyclopaedia saw record breaking increases in daily traffic, with 579 million visits to articles related to the pandemic. While social Media Companies battled with misinformation and conspiracy theories related to the virus, wikipedia had a dedicated group of medical experts creating articles which were based on verified information and reliable sources. Theres been a lot of Community Effort being organised about systematically making sure that we have accurate information. And in fact, weve done a partnership with the World Health Organization to try to be clear and sure that were giving the best possible information. Despite being vulnerable to vandalism or naughty users having a play with celeb biographies, wikipedia maintaining its commitment to being the go to source of reliable information is critical, as it forces those on social media to step outside their echo chamber and take in a balanced position. With wikipedia, what we always try to do is, on any legitimate controversy, to present all of the legitimate sides fairly and to say, look, you may agree or disagree, but heres what. You know, Yasser Arafat said this and ariel sharon responded that, and we dont decide what is the truth or what you should think. We just tell you the history and the context. I mean, we also try to avoid
a sort of a silly kind of both sides ism, like, some say the moon is made of rocks and some say cheese. You know, thats not really neutrality. Its really about being thoughtful about legitimate positions and trying to present them. Over the past two decades, weve seen wikipedia evolve from a seemingly impossible idea to an internet giant. And amongst all the negativity surrounding social media platforms, its proof that people can come together online in a positive way. What does the future have in store for wikipedia . Well, my dream for wikipedia has always been for us to imagine a world in which every Single Person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge. And thats what were doing. Clearly, weve gone a long way towards that goal in the wealthy western parts of the world and in those languages. My dream for wikipedia is really thinking about every Single Person on the planet. And lets face it, we all do need a bit of positivity right
now, dont we . Anyway, that is it for this week. As ever, you can keep up with the team on social media find us on youtube, instagram, facebook and twitter bbcclick. Thanks for watching and well see you soon. Bye bye. Further snow showers for the north and west of scotland. Another cold
night of widespread frost. I see stretches again. Rain, sleet and snow continues eastwards across wales, southern england, south west england, parts of northern ireland. Further north, mostly dry. Further wintry showers into the north and west of scotland. Another cold day. Looking ahead, mandy is another cold day with a few wintry showers but most will be dry. Monday is another cold day. This is bbc news, im lukwesa burak. The headlines at apm more than 1500 people have been arrested in russia as police crack down on protests by supporters of the jailed Opposition Leader alexei navalny. One of those detained is mr navalny� s wife, yulia, who was at a demonstration attended by thousands in moscow. Senior doctors call for changes in the vaccine roll out in the uk. They want the 12 week gap between the first and second dose of the pfizerjab to be halved. What we do need to be assured of is that people are properly protected, because if the level of protection with the second dose is compromised by a longer delay, that of course will impact on the doctors that i represent, because they are facing the virus at close quarters as they
look after patients