08/02/2018 BBC Business Live

This is Business Live from BBC News

with Susannah Streeter

and Victoria Fritz.

Fake news backlash -

social media users are angry

and lawmakers want to know

what the big tech companies

are doing to combat

the growing problem.

Live from London, that's our

top story on Thursday

the 8th of February.

Twitter, YouTube and Facebook

will face a grilling by UK members

of paliament in Washington

over their "completely inadequate"

approach to fake news.

Also in the programme -

shining a light on the Dark Web.

The US breaks a cybercrime ring

that traded stolen bank

details around the world.

This is the situation on the

financial markets. In Europe, down

across the borders that volatility

continues.

And, with health services

increasingly stretched,

could home testing kits like this

one help bear the burden?

And, our Twitter

question of the day -

are you fed up with fake news?

Should tech companies be

doing more to keep your

newsfeed fake-news free?

That is a tongue twister!

Just use the hashtag #BBCBizLive.

Hello and welcome.

We start with the growing backlash

against social media companies

over their role in the

spread of fake news.

Today executives from Facebook -

YouTube which is owned by Google -

and Twitter will be questioned

about the issue by British members

of parliament at a public

hearing in Washington.

Critics have given the tech giants

an unflattering new acronym: BAADD.

As in Big, Anti-competitive,

Addictive and Destructive

to Democracy.

Last month, Facebook reacted

to criticism by refocusing

on updates from friends

and family, rather than news

publishers and brands.

It says that has led to people

spending 50 million fewer hours

a day on the network -

a fall of around 5%.

Facebook has admitted 146 million

users may have been subjected

to Russian misinformation,

before and after the US

Presidential election.

Jason Karaian, the global finance

and economics editor

at Quartz, joins me now.

Thank you for joining us. We tend to

think of fake news being something

that we read, but is it also

something we can quantify, something

we can consume, something we can buy

and trade?

We are starting to.

Twitter has been explaining and

upping the numbers of people that

have seen Russian disinformation. We

are starting to identify some of the

most popular forms of

disinformation. These hearings will

get to the bottom of that little

bit. The companies themselves are

now realising they are not neutral

platforms, in a massive change of

tone, they are disseminating some of

this disinformation, fake news, so

they need some way to quantify it.

It is something they can't just

pretend that they are just a

platform letting it washed through

and they don't have any

responsibility for it.

That is

certainly true cost of you have

called it a massive change of tone.

Surely a big change of tone would be

putting up the chief executives of

these companies. These are middle

management people. Apologies to the

people, and sure they are very good

at their jobs but these are not the

bosses of these companies and quite

frankly, it was MPs from Britain who

had to go to Washington, all the way

across the pond, to find and speak

to them in the first place.

These

tech companies with fake it is the

Public policy executives who are

there and it is not unique to these

particular hearings. That's what

these companies have done. Those of

the spokespeople they have put

forward on who they say are at the

forefront of deciding the company's

responses. Frankly, for optics

purposes, putting Mark Zuckerberg in

front of MPs that that is not

something they want, so they would

rather put those more mid-level

lawyerly executives in front. It is

shrewd on their part.

We have seen

this kind of grilling before, does

it make that much of an impact or do

you think we will see more impact

and real changes at social media

companies of investor say, we are

going to pull money out because

there is a start of that Jared

Kushner there is a sharp reaction to

that and the groundswell of public

opinion.

-- there is the start of

that? I think I would probably have

a bigger impact if user engagement

went on, if people started deleting

their accounts and if investors

started to sell their shares. I

think that would have a lot more

effect than a few MPs flying over

the ocean to talk to lawyers.

Thank

you very much for coming in and

talking us through that, Jason.

Let's take a look at some

of the other stories

making the news...

The electric car maker Tesla

has posted its worst

ever quarterly loss -

some 675 million in the three

months to December.

The firm warned that spending

will increase this year.

But it has stuck to its target

of producing 5000 Model 3's

a week by the end of the second

quarter.

Major Japanese investors in Britain

are due to meet the UK Prime

Minister and Chancellor on Thursday.

They include carmakers

Nissan, Toyota and Honda -

along with banks and drug companies.

It comes amid fresh debate among

business over Brexit negotiations.

21st Century Fox says it continues

to expect UK approval

of its takeover of broadcaster Sky,

despite a provisional finding

that the deal is not

in the public interest.

Chief executive James Murdoch has

told analysts the firm is working

with authorities to resolve

concerns.

Officials in the United States say

they've broken up a major

international cyber-crime ring.

36 people have been charged

with being part of a group

which deals in stolen credit cards,

bank fraud and ID theft.

The US Department of Justice says

the group trafficked stolen

identities across five continents

using an online forum on the Dark

Web known as "In-fraud".

More on that story a little later in

the programme.

To Asia now - and in the last couple

of hours China has posted a healthy

set of trade figures for January.

In particular, a big jump

in imports because of

a stronger domestic economy.

Leisha Santorelli joins us from our

Asia business hub in Singapore.

It really goes to the heart of the

changing nature of China and its

economy.

The data shows that growth

remains robust in the world's second

largest economy, absolutely. Imports

beat estimates by a really wide

margin, rising by 37% in value from

a year earlier. To compare that,

markets were expecting a 10% rise.

As for Xbox, they rose about 11%,

which shows they are still in strong

demand. Another interesting point I

want to make, China's trade surplus

with America narrowed from last

year's record level, which is a

positive sign to Beijing, given they

have a very sensitive trade

relationship with President Trump.

Analysts are saying we need to treat

this set of data with some caution

and that is because the trade

members are actually being magnified

by something called seasonal

volatility. For example, there was a

surge in oil shipments last month

because they had freezing weather in

China and there has been stockpiling

ahead of the Chinese New Year, which

starts next week. Overall, trade

growth expected to be strong but

these sets of figures are magnified.

Thank you very much.

Let's check in with

the financial markets.

Most major Asian indices rose today,

following the week's sharp losses

but it's pretty choppy out there -

with

traders are struggling to get a firm

footing in this volatile climate.

The Hang Seng is up. The Dow closed

lower again. Let's take a look at

Europe. They are all down as well.

The temporal map. Looking ahead to

the Bank of England to find out

their financial policy.

And Joe Miller has the details about

what's ahead on Wall Street Today.

They wonder what on Thursday as

Twitter, which has despite its

global reach never reported a profit

since it debuted on the stock

market. It is expected to do so at

last, thanks in large part to an

aggressive year of cost-cutting.

Twitter has been buoyed by its most

famous user, of course, Donald

Trump. Investors, they will be

looking elsewhere to see if the user

base as a whole is growing,

particularly outside of the United

States. Talking of Donald Trump, we

will see if he has revived the

fortunes of the media with Wall

Street owner News Corp and the New

York Times publishing results. And

video game publisher Activision

blizzard, the makers of Call Of

Duty. They are expected to report a

rise in revenue, helped by titles

over Christmas. Gamers will be

searching for clues about the

company's plans for 2018.

Joining us is Jeremy Stretch,

head of currency strategy,

CIBC World Markets.

Good morning.

Welcome to the

programme. Let's start with

something Suzanne mentioned.

It is ready about what is happening

later on with the ECB and Bank of

England. We will have the minutes of

their discussions, the meeting

coming up and it will give us some

sort of direction towards their

monetary policy. It was fears of

rapid interest rate rises that led

to that market sell off earlier in

the week?

Absolutely. Everything is

revolving around central banks, as

we gradually move past the era of

ultra low interest rates and

expectations moving up. The Bank of

England, we're not expecting any

policy changes today but I wouldn't

be necessary over Lee surprised if a

couple of members of the committee

vote for an immediate rate hike.

Then we have Mark Carney giving his

press briefing on the forecast and I

think markets will be looking at

guidance as to where the Bank of

England are going, how quickly they

will try to normalise policy. But of

course, there is that elephant in

the room, relating to Brexit

negotiations which will have an

impact.

How much guidance can you

give, given the elephant in the

room?

Everything has to be

qualified. I think if you could have

excluded the Brexit story, I think

markets would be discounting a

reasonable possibility of a hike. In

May, when we get them max forecasts.

Looking at that sort of timing, I

think it's far too ambitious. I

think if we look at the

deterioration or reversal we have

seen in the indices this month,

showing a slight moderation of

activity at the start of the year, I

think it makes sense for banks to

say, yes we would like hike rates

and we will over time, but I think

we have to be cautious and prudent.

What about the European Central

Bank, to what extent do you think

the outcome of the German coalition

talks will affect, have an impact on

those discussions on the direction

of future policy?

I think they will

have a material impact on future

policy. What we have seen this the

opposition, formal opposition, now

taking control of the Finance

Ministry. I think that will loosen

the purse strings in Germany. I

think that will be important in

terms of growth dynamics in Germany

and Eurozone as a homework. I think

you add to the debate within the ECB

and I think from the Germanic

perspective, the policy in Europe is

far too loose and I think that will

add to the debate and the timing or

pressure on the European Central

Bank to consider their own policy

reversal. I suspect has become to

the back end of this year, those

negative deposit rates which have

been prevalent in Europe will start

to be taken off the table.

Thank you

very much. You will be back later to

talk a little about cybercrime and a

controversial gambling conference

Still to come...

We book our own trips

and scan our own groceries,

but what about something

like doing our own blood test?

Is health care heading

towards a do-it-yourself model?

We'll be finding out

in a few minutes.

You're with Business

Live from BBC News.

TalkTalk is in talks to roll out

full fibre broadband

to 3 million UK homes.

The broadband firm has also

announced plans to raise £200m

through a rights issue.

Joining us now is our Economics

Correspondent, Andrew Walker.

TalkTalk is looking to raise this

money and shift the focus towards

broadband, away from mobile. What

are the key steps they have

announced?

Quite striking move. In a

sense, you could describe this as

going back to their roots. The

company originally started off

within carphone offering services

over fixed line and then

subsequently got into mobile. Now it

is going back towards those fixed

line services, creating a new

company, along with infrastructure.

It will be aiming to provide full

fibre services to 3 million users

across the country. They have

already started an experiment on

this in York, where they have 14,000

already connected, aiming to get up

to 50,000 as a result of work that

is currently in hand. They are

proposing to go to investors, to

raise another £200 million. Of that,

£40 million they are proposing will

come from the executive chairman or

executive director. Trying to send a

message to other would be investors

that the board is really committed

to this project. And they are also

going to be, they are also going to

be continuing with this process of

switching mobile customers over to

O2, when their contracts expire they

are being offered a new contract

with O2, rather than reviewing the

TalkTalk operation. One of the

striking things about the trading

update I have here, there are four

pages, or mobile there is just a

single sentence.

Fascinating, thank

you. You will be across that for us.

Andrew Walker in our business room,

where it looks like people haven't

got into work yet, looks a bit

empty!

There are

empty!

There are some

empty!

There are some people

empty!

There are some people working.

empty!

There are some people working. They

empty!

There are some people working. They

are

filling in the website pages. Is it

another day of stock market

volatility? TalkTalk shares faring

badly.

You're watching Business Live.

Our top story...

UK Members of Parliament

will question social

media bosses in Washington later

over the issue of fake news

after calling the firms' response

so far "completely inadequate."

Many of us are trying to be

more healthy these days.

But how do you fancy

tracking your health

by testing your own blood at home?

Well, one company - Thriva -

provides kits that can be used

at home to test for a variety

of different things.

They can track a wide range

of health indicators including

cholesterol and liver function.

You send the sample to the company -

which then gives you

expert analysis online.

So, is this a good way to spot

early signs of illness

and take pressure off

over-stretched health services?

Hamish Grierson, co-founder

of Thriva joins me now.

I just want find out how you set up

the company, giving you do not have

a medical background.

No, that is

right. Thriva was created with one

simple purpose in mind. We wanted to

give anybody access to the benefit

that comes of getting a regular

check up on your health as you point

out it is about staying in front of

the health issues that impact

millions of people around the

country. Practically speaking, the

reason we have started with a blood

test you can do from home, it is

basically painless, a little

pinprick. One of my two business

partners has a genetic, high

cholesterol disposition which means

he tests his blood every three or

four months. I am fascinated by

nutrition and how you can hack your

way to a healthier body. The

combination of those two things

ultimately led us to think about

what happens when you put the

consumer at the heart of what is a

health care process and trying to

power them to understand their own

information and be able to take a

good decision, or make a decision,

on the basis of that data.

Your

business partner, Elliott, you said

he is taking his own blood every

three months. I have never done

that. How could I be assured that

what I was doing was accurate and

could get me the same results as a

doctor if they did the same test?

It

is a really good question for the

credibility that the core of what we

are about. The reality is

laboratories we used to analyse your

blood would be exactly the same as

the NHS laboratories. Really

importantly, we talked before we

came on air about what happens when

you see something and the results

that might be potentially

problematic, or stimulate a concern.

The reality for us is, information

without context, for us, is really

irresponsible. Every report is

looked at by an NHS trained GP we

work with. The report itself

delivered online, really clear to

understand what those things in the

report mean. It is written in plain

English would you can see a crafts.

You inside outside a particular

reference range? -- a craft will

stop as I say, it is about making

sure you can trust the information

have the credibility you would

otherwise expect from a blood test

you would take elsewhere and you

know what to do with the information

when you have it.

There was another

quite well-known blood testing

company in the United States which

collapsed. Have you found it

difficult to get funding for your

business because of that? People

trust you in what you are doing.

I

would be lying if I said every

single investor was happy about it

that none of our customers ever

have. There is a simple reality

which is that we do things

differently. We share some mission.

We're also about trying to empower

people to proactively manage their

health. Because we are executing in

a fundamentally different way, it is

fairly short.

Do you have trial

setup with the National Health

Service in the UK?

We are proud that

we have watched our first pilot

working with the Royal Brompton

Hospital, in association with cystic

fibrosis department. Over time what

we came to appreciate is, just

because you are a patient having

gone into what we think as the sick

or serious care system the National

Health Service is about, it does not

mean you ought not to be empowered

to manage your health proactively as

well stop that particular pilot is

about helping people who otherwise

would be coming back and forth from

the hospital.

Apparently you do not

see the needles.

You never see any

dog. It is a tiny pinprick and is

painless.

-- any needle.

Let's go to Singapore

now - which is holding

its annual air show.

Asia's aviation boom has

strained capacity at some

airports around the region.

It's also created a shortage

of pilots who can fly the planes.

Our business reporter

Mariko Oi reports.

Training to be a pilot. It takes up

to two years to learn how to deal

with emergencies inside and around

an aircraft. For 28-year-old Dean it

was his childhood dream.

When I was

young I took a flight in New Zealand

and flew around the mountains. I was

away from everything.

It was

fantastic. But it is competitive to

get in. Here in Singapore, 600 apply

for 60 spots annually. It is not

cheap. Up to 140,000 US dollars to

complete the course. Many cadets,

including 24-year-old -- this

24-year-old man pay for the training

themselves.

I think it is worth it

for the investment. In the long one,

this is my passion.

And shame will

likely get his money's worth because

there is an acute shortage of

pilots. Boeing is forecasting that

global airlines will need to hire

637,000 new pilots over the next 20

years. Some 40% of that demand comes

from Asia.

Jeremy is back to look through the

papers.

Before we do that, we are going to

go through some of the tweets.

We have been asking about fake news.

They can use as a big problem in the

digital world. It creates a wrong

perception. Tech giants must take

action against this. Another said,

it would be nice if they could help

to weed out fake news but should be

held responsible for the spread of

it as long as they didn't literally

promote it. A really tricky subject.

From my perspective, clearly it adds

to the uncertainty. You do see these

news stories coming across news

wires and all the various sources.

That does impact financial markets

will stop you do get distortions

which can create and feed their own

panic. That is something we are very

mindful of.

Another story we are

talking about is the cyber crime

mass arrest in the United States.

Another development in the ongoing

battle.

It is the ongoing arms race,

the battle between good and evil.

You have the dark web and people

being arrested across continents.

All the bases covered in terms of

the spectrum of the modern cyber

crime story. It underlines that

regulatory authorities are

continuing to try and crack down but

it is a very difficult process.

A

difficult process. You say we are

trying to crack down but it is

striking we are trying to create an

online black market, grow it to a

half billion dollar operation and

get away with it.

It is astonishing

when you look at the details

involved. It is a race operation

which is being run outside the

confines of the mainstream internet

process in an effort to try to

facilitate stealing people's details

to do for them. It is astonishing

this can go one almost in plain

sight. That is the problem and

difficulty that the authorities

have.

We have heard a lot about

attempts within various industries

to stamp out sexual misconduct yet

the gambling industry has been

criticised for allowing an

exhibition to take place with pole

dancers in London this week. That

has been criticised. It is part of a

trend, isn't it, to shift away from

the use of women as promotional

tools?

The fact this story has made

media underlines changing dynamics.

It has been a slow process but, if

you think back 20, 30 years ago, you

would have had women draped across

cars at motor shows. That does not

happen any more. The context but

this has been flagged underlines

that we are slowly getting to a

scenario that is much more

beneficial.

Thank you for being on

the programme today. Goodbye.

That's it from Business Live today.

There will be more business

news throughout the day