Sir Paul Marshall Urges Social Media Giants to Publish Their Algorithms

Media Mogul Calls for Greater Transparency from Social Media Giants

In a compelling address at Oxford University, Sir Paul Marshall, a notable figure in British media and an evangelical Christian, urged social media giants like Elon Musk to reveal the algorithms that govern content visibility. Marshall’s call for transparency also included a push for these platforms to adopt greater accountability measures.

Sir Paul, who is an investor in GB News and owns The Spectator magazine and UnHerd, emphasized the need for significant shifts in how major tech companies operate. During his lecture, he stated, “Social media platforms like X, Bluesky or Meta should be required to publish all the algorithms that they use to analyse or influence our preferences. Elon Musk believes in open source and transparency for manufacturing. He should do the same for X.”

He continued, “We should all be able to know how the algorithms work which place certain stories and characters in our timeline and not others.”

Marshall also suggested that these platforms should be regulated similarly to public utilities. “Social media platforms should be regulated as common carriers. Under the current regulations, they are exempted from any of the responsibilities of a traditional publisher. They have power without responsibility. Effectively, those who post are treated as publishers,” he explained.

He criticized the platforms for their ability to control content visibility, stating, “The platforms cannot be held to account for what is published, yet they still enjoy many of the powers of a publisher. In particular, they can manipulate the saliency of posts through algorithms or even suspend accounts, even that of President Trump.”

Marshall argued for reduced power and increased accountability for these platforms: “This is wrong, and platforms need to have less power and more accountability. At the very least, there need to be constraints around them such as you would impose on a bank or a railway. They should not be allowed to refuse or suspend accounts or to actively demote the visibility of a post, unless it is in clear breach of the law.”

In addition to his media ventures, Sir Paul is a well-known philanthropist and a supporter of Holy Trinity Brompton Church in London. His lecture, titled ‘Reflections of an Accidental Media Owner,’ was hosted by The Pharos Foundation, a research and educational charity based in Oxford.

He also criticized the BBC’s dominant influence in the UK media scene and highlighted the risks within the current media ecosystem. “The dangers of this new ecosystem are clear. Unless we are careful, conspiracy theories will multiply. Truth will be sacrificed even more in the quest for eyeballs, and tribal conflict will become ever more dominant,” he noted.

Emphasizing the need for responsibility in media, he remarked, “The key overriding principle for me is to ensure that there is a golden thread of responsibility and accountability running through everything, whether that be the platforms, the publishers or self-publishing individuals.”

Rev Peter Crumpler is a Church of England minister in St Albans, Herts, UK, and a former communications director with the CofE.