Google and Facebook make Leveson plea

Google and Facebook urged the UK’s Leveson inquiry into the future of press regulation to preserve the distinction between professional publishers, such as newspapers, and Internet platforms. The two internet companies also warned against heavy-handed regulation that could diminish free speech online, despite the speed with which defamatory material can spread unchecked online. Lord Justice Leveson, the appeal court judge leading the inquiry, was told by Lord Allan, the former Sheffield MP who heads Facebook’s public policy unit in Europe, that the social network had more in common with “gossip in pubs” than newspapers and would be equally hard to regulate.