wolk is a social news platform the word being a popular used to describe someone who's acutely aware of social justice issues especially racism it uses bright colors and has a morton told designed it's a space for politically engaged young people to come together and discuss the burning issues of the day. were created for us to eat with you. just lies really how we choose you. know topic as off limits out woke climate change beacon to some gender issues kept the something for everyone across its pages has around 73000 followers and one of its most successful videos has hit 1700000 of you mark but scrolling through its pages one can see that its content is primarily centered around the experience of british muslims and their identity and politics so alongside islamic holiday well wishes you'll also find debates on different perspectives of terrorism for example but no one has an issue with the content of what with it sponsor because the report has just revealed that the platform is the co-founder of the u.k. government counter-terrorism strategy now the home office hasn't been particu

i would like to introduce our guest roland de wolk, an investigative reporter in print, broadcast and online journalism and a historian university adjunct and author. during four decades in journalism roland de wolk has investigated projects and features earning him most major citations in his field honoring him with this heidi professional journalist with his career achievement awards. he's also the author of two books by chronicle books and senior lecturer at the san francisco state university journalism department where he taught with distinction for 25 years and published the first online journalism textbook. also with us tonight is columnist for the san francisco chronicle phil matier. whether writing about politics or personalities he has informed and entertained readers for over two decades about fascinating things. scoops, insights and executive a reporting can be seen every sunday, monday and wednesday in the san francisco chronicle and he is a regular kt i asked tv and k cbs radio. i would like to thank our cosponsors tonight, publisher at uc press, and thanks to peter kearn

well the media group which runs wolk has told us it is proud of the work it undertakes for its clients meanwhile facebook is expanding its fake news crackdown to his instagram platform will be able to flag what they deem to be suspicious posts but the content can be marked as fake or false and will then be deleted from searches experts assess status for example suppose somebody posts a false statement like this one over here tagging it with the hash tag math expert now somebody flags it up is false it will stop appearing under that hash tag social media privacy advocate bill he is skeptical that the safeguards will prove to be a success. it's when you get into pictures and primarily with video where things start to get really really difficult and at this moment in time the automated tools that they're using cannot tell the difference to a cat a dog and a terrorist at this moment in time the having certainly would lead you on facebook platform to use an enormous number of me who sit and do nothing but look through these videos to moderate them and to recognize them. taking this sort of

now the home office has not been particularly forthcoming about with details of its involvement with wolk it has admitted that it has material from the project but refused to answer any further questions about the motives behind establishing at all or indeed what. the uses allegedly on the grounds of national security and it's a short statement on the issue didn't really help clarify anything father we're committed to using all the tools available to counter the threat from terrorism in the u.k. the home office works and partnership with a range of organizations to reduce vulnerabilities to organized criminal extremist interests throats in the u.k. now it's not just the wider public or uses who want told about the government's role the report also reveals that people who are invited on to woken actually featured in discussions one in form that it was a part of the home office an initiative this is an initiative called prevent that has caused great controversy since its implementation back in 2003 and that's being accused of a sentient being a state sanctioned spying and targeting muslim m