Labour Party to call for regulation of technology companies' algorithms

Labour's industrial strategy to compel Amazon, Google, Facebook and others to open-up algorithms to official scrutiny

The Labour Party is to call for technology and internet companies, from Amazon to Uber, to open up their algorithms for official scrutiny and regulation.

The plan was revealed by the Party's industrial spokesperson Chi Onwurah last night and will be in the Labour Party's paper on industrial strategy to be published in the new year.

"Algorithms aren't above the law," Onwurah told The Guardian newspaper. "The outcomes of algorithms are regulated - the companies which use them have to meet employment law and competition law. The question is, how do we make that regulation effective when we can't see the algorithm?"

The Labour Party therefore wants to see internet and technology companies more closely supervised by government. "Algorithms are part of our world, so they are subject to regulation, but because they are not transparent, it's difficult to regulate them effectively," added Onwurah.

In a letter published by the same publication on Sunday, Onwurah argued that "Google's autocomplete and algorithmic search results can reinforce hate speech and stereotypes" and added that "companies such as Google, Facebook and Uber need to take responsibility for the unintended consequences of the algorithms and machine learning that drive their profits".

She concluded: "They can bring huge benefits and great apps but we need a tech-savvy government to minimise the downside by opening up algorithms to regulation as well as legislating for greater consumer ownership of data and control of the advertising revenue it generates."

She suggested that Google providing the ‘wrong' results was the equivalent of people falling ill after drinking Coca-Cola.

The government, in response, has pointed to its latest digital economy bill, which is currently being debated in the House of Lords, which will extend the range of websites that the government can order internet service providers to block.

Online commenters, not surprisingly, were scathing about the plans and suggested that the Labour Party was out-of-touch. "They don't understand it therefore they are left with two choices, regulate or ban," said one.