Teachers slam social media firms

Teaching unions have accused social media companies of evading responsibility by failing to implement sufficient measures to prevent the online abuse of teachers on their platforms.

Calls for the government to intervene have intensified as video sharing app TikTok has been hosting a new trend known as “School Slander”. This invites young people to create fake school accounts and post images of teachers alongside defamatory and malicious allegations.

The NASUWT has warned that the damage to professional reputations and repercussions for teachers’ mental health and wellbeing are serious and far reaching, and therefore warrant urgent action from government and social media companies.

Patrick Roach, NASUWT general secretary, has written to UK education ministers urging them to hold social media companies to account and mandate that robust measures are taken to protect teachers from online harm.

And the deputy general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, Nick Brook, has also called for TikTok and other social media companies to step up and take far greater responsibility for the content hosted on their platforms.

He said: “If they are unwilling to adequately police content themselves, then we would encourage government to take steps to intervene on behalf of the victims of abusive content.”