A week of unrest in the UK – and a week of silence from big tech

For days, similar scenes have played out across England and parts of Northern Ireland – unrest, communities in fear, a huge police presence, with the flames being fanned by social media.

For days, journalists at BBC News have been contacting big tech companies, trying to find out what they are doing about it.

Whatever it is, they don’t want to talk about it – the messaging app Telegram has been the only firm to issue an on-the-record statement.

It is hoped the tide has started to turn on the streets. But if they hoped that by keeping quiet they would avoid further scrutiny, the tech firms may well be wrong.

“I think it is horrendous they are not taking more ownership of what is happening”, says Baroness Martha Lane Fox, one of the leading lights in the UK tech scene.

She knows big tech from the inside, having sat on the board of Twitter, as it was then called.

“Generally, they don’t like getting involved in politics – it doesn’t serve them well”, she told the BBC.

Given the UK is a relatively small market, in global terms, she’s “not surprised” by the silence – but says it should not deter the government from acting.

“The lack of accountability and serious regulation that is taking this on is something I think that should alarm all of us”, she says.