Irish and UK governments urged to rein in social media recommender systems

Violence in Belfast led to police in riot gear flooding the area after petrol bombs and missiles were thrown at officers.

Social media "recommender" systems should be turned off by default in order to combat the "spread of hate", more than 240 groups have said in an open letter to Irish and British leaders.

Recommender systems are algorithms which use data such as search history, past purchases, age and location to decide which content social media users are presented with.