this is business live from bbc news with ben thompson and sally bundock. the bosses of facebook, twitter and youtube face a grilling over the spread of extremist material on the internet. live from london, that's our top story on wednesday 17th january. as the internet giants go from strength to strength, do they need to play a greater role in tackling extremism? that's the question they'll face in washington today. also on the grapevine... as protectionist policies over wine. and we'll be getting a bird's eye view on the world of aerial imagery.

we'll be speaking to the boss of a company helping businesses manage acres of land from the skies. today we want to hear whether you think the social media giants are facing enough scrutiny? should they face greater censorship or is this an invasion of free speech? let us know. just use the hashtag bbcbizlive. bosses of youtube, facebook and twitter will attend a hearing in the us later aimed at tackling the spread of extremist content online. all three of the platforms have already taken measures to prevent terrorist propaganda but politicians around the world say more needs to be done. last year, facebook said it plans to boost its team of moderators by more than 3,000.

and google says it'll increase the number of people monitoring content to a total of 10,000. meanwhile twitter has already removed around a million accounts related to terrorism. it's a big concern for governments around the world. in germany for example, firms can be fined over $60 million if they fail to take down extremist material. in the uk, ministers have suggested tech giants could face punitive taxes if they don't do more in the fight against terrorism. with me is richard kramer, founder and managing partner, arete research. good morning. what will be achieved at this hearing, if anything?” don't think much will come out of it other than the thundering of politicians over the role of social media. i think those companies are playing, running a very fine line between being traditional publishers, which they really are,

and saying that they are simply neutral platforms for conversation. this is the difficulty. we can't seem to come to a conclusion across the board with regards to the answer to this issue. ben was talking about what companies will do to monitor material on their platforms, as it were, but how do we solve the problem? there are two parts to the problem. part of it gets solved why it being commercial issues for the companies. twitter has sales that are down despite the trump effect they were expecting. they are not a brand safe platform given people can anonymously say almost anything on the platform. looking at a company like facebook, they have wrestled mightily this year with their role in elections and the spread of fake news. they have pledged to self regulate. what politicians will be

looking for is whether these companies will be serious about their commitment to regulate their own platforms, or they will have to step in themselves. . the issue with facebook, we will wait to see what robert mueller will find out, who is leading the special investigation into us elections and possible interference from russia. where do we end up in terms of how the platforms will be managed, if they are managed at all, and by whom. will it be an outside body or an ohus will it be an outside body or an onus on the companies themselves, and if it is, at what expense will it be to them? in terms of the expense, it's something the companies can afford. google has $100 billion of net cash, facebook has about $40 billion. it doesn't come from the traditional stream of

revenue, like the bbc. i'm sure when you started as a journalist you were given strict instructions about the type of language you could use on air. those platforms have not restricted themselves in the name of free speech on the conversation they wa nt to free speech on the conversation they want to have. the people using those platforms are not employees of the organisation. as a bbc employee i have a duty of care. somebody putting out a tweet doesn't have any sense of that. it's just sharing their opinion. looking at google for example in the united states, they do offer a television service, and in that sense they are a traditional publisher. these companies behave very much as traditional publishers do, but they don't want to have the same regulatory regime or obligations as traditional publishers do. i think it's only a matter of time before there is some balance struck between the public content and what is separated out as the comments of individuals on the platforms, in the same way as you have rules for comments sections on

newspapers. thank you for your analysis and thoughts, richard. it's analysis and thoughts, richard. it's a tricky problem to try to resolve. we would like your ideas and comments and thoughts. a lot of you getting in touch already, keep them coming in. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news... british luxury brand burberry has reported a 2 percent drop in revenue for the three months to end of december. it comes after sales in europe slipped against a year ago, when a fall in the pound helped it perform well in its home market. nestle will sell its us confectionery business to ferrero for almost $3 billion as it focuses on healthier products. the italian company beat out hershey and others for the candy unit, which includes brands like crunch and butterfinger. the maker of nutella will now become the world's third largest chocolate company. nestle says it wants to focus

on bottled water and baby food for future growth. ford has reported earnings for last year that came in below expectations. and its forecast for this year is also lower than forecast. the car maker's shares fell more than 2% in after hours trading. the firm said higher costs for metals and other materials, as well as currency volatility, could cost it $1.6 billion this year. australia has filed a trade complaint against canada to the world trade organization, over its strict rules on imported wine. this follows a similar complaint by the united states last year over the same issue. leisha santorelli is in singapore with more on this. it's interesting how so many people can get so animated about wine, but it's a big export for australia. absolutely, both the us and

australia want equal access to canada's wine market because it is worth an estimated $7 billion. a very important market for them. the complaint by australia about canada to the wto is the first time they have done it in the history of the organisation. canada is australia's fourth biggest wine market, and in the complaint australia complains a number of provinces in canada discriminate against wines produced overseas. the provinces in question are british columbia, 0ntario, quebec and nova scotia. many provinces implementing higher prices as well as sales taxes on imported wine. in british columbia for example, imported wine has to be sold in a separate section of the supermarket. basically, it's a store within a store and it even has a separate cash registers, so it might prevent people going to buy foreign wine. australia's trade minister, in the complaint, in the press release,

has said canada's protectionist policies has the potential to threaten jobs policies has the potential to threatenjobs in policies has the potential to threaten jobs in australia and so under wto rules, because of the complaint, canada has 60 days to settle it before it can be escalated further. they just settle it before it can be escalated further. theyjust need to sit down over a bottle of wine and sort it out. hong kong stocks hit their highest ever level in late trade on wednesday, a day after posting a record close despite losses on wall street, where investors cashed in after a strong run of data and ever—rising markets. in europe — expected to follow that downbeat mood from wall street too — suggesting we might see some sort of pullback from those record highs we've seen of late. the us market given a boost by the tax cut in the united states. and in the back of the mind

of investors is the potential us government shutdown at the weekend — if the row over budgets doesn't get resolved. a small dip in oil prices also one to keep an eye on. more on that ina moment, but first samira has the details about what's ahead on wall street today. on wednesday, the us federal reserve, america's central bank, will release the beige book. it is published in advance of fed meetings and is reallly a compilation of economic conditions as reported by each federal reserve bank across the country. so why is it called the beige book? well, the cover is beige, of course. bank earnings continue on wednesday with goldman sachs and bank of america reporting. trading revenues are expected to be weaker but most analysts are pretty optimistic about banking as a whole. one reason of course is the continued economic growth and the federal reserve continuing to raise interest rates. the other big factor contributing to better results for banks is the passage of the tax reform. we were just having a chuckle over

her explanation of the beige book. i didn't know that, and i'm the central bank geek! i knew it but i have spent a lot of time stood outside the federal reserve. there isa outside the federal reserve. there is a lot going on, as ever. what's catching your attention? a lot of people watching bond markets right 110w. people watching bond markets right now. that seems to be where investor attention is right now. they have been very quiet over the last few yea rs been very quiet over the last few years and have done very well as investors focus on a middle view outcome. some of those factors seem to be changing and bond markets are weakened since the year end and investors are focused on that. as oui’ governments, investors are focused on that. as our governments, given as the price of money they are borrowing gap. our governments, given as the price of money they are borrowing gapm

bond markets are weakened, what's the impact? it increases the price of money for governments. so they have to pay more to settle their debts. governments have been borrowing cheaply for a long time. but every bit of borrowing in the private sector is priced of the government bond rate and that rate has gone up in the last few weeks. that is the centre of attention for investors, as to whether it's an opportunity to buy, or whether it's a turnaround from 20 years of bond market strengths and we have seen. word on carillion as the saga continues. the fallout of supplies. inter service is a firm that is very similarto inter service is a firm that is very similar to carillion. it does some very similar things, similar to carillion. it does some very similarthings, particularly similar to carillion. it does some very similar things, particularly in the support service side. there is a lot of focus on that business. some of it is the nature of the business. long—term contracts can be quite low margin so in essence those companies are guessing how the contract will

progress over the length and there isa progress over the length and there is a lot of debate how one accounts for the contract. they are different companies, but at the end of the day, it's the nature of that sort of business, and it's under some scrutiny at the moment. richard, you will be back later in the programme to talk about all sorts. we have lots of interesting stories coming. still to come... we'll tell you how you can keep a close eye on your business from thousands of miles away. you're with business live from bbc news. let's get more on the carillion story. it's deadline day for private contractors who supplied construction firm carillion, which collapsed on monday. 48 hours later, they are having government support withdrawn, leaving some with huge unpaid bills. bbc business correspondent jonty bloom joins us now. talk us through this end of

deadline, what does it mean? talk us through this end of deadline, what does it mean7m basically means people working on private sector projects are left swinging in the wind. they don't know if they will be paid. they don't know who will take over the contract. it's very worrying for them. and also many subcontractors for carillion, and there will have been thousands, if not tens of thousands, will be looking at its books and basically what the a ccou nta nts books and basically what the accou nta nts a re books and basically what the accountants are saying is they will be lucky if they get 1p in the pound of the money carillion owes them. they will have to write off all that money they were due from the company they were expecting to earn, because they were expecting to earn, because they will not get it. in the meantime, shares in interserve have fallen today. it's difficult to say if they will be the next carillion, but they are a similar company and they have also put out a profits warning. the similarity ends there. carillion had expanded very rapidly,

with large overseas contracts that hadn't been paid. they ran out of money and the banks and government refused to support it any further. it went very quickly from a company that people thought was worth hundreds of millions, if not billions, to a company that owed billions, to a company that owed billions of pounds. no sign that i nte rse rve billions of pounds. no sign that interserve is like that, but the worry is most of carillion's value was those contracts. when it's turned out the contracts were not making money, the value plummeted very quickly. thank you so much. jonty bloom, one of our team thank you so much. jonty bloom, one of ourteam in thank you so much. jonty bloom, one of our team in the business unit trying to stay on top of this carillion story. speaking on radio 4 this morning, carillion executives should forego their bonuses. it seems incredible this is even being spoken about but the shadow chief secretary to the

treasury has adjusted that should be the case, they say they are owed them, but he is then the moral point is that they should not take their bonuses. the full interview is on the website. you're watching business live. our top story — bosses of youtube, facebook and twitter will attend a hearing in the us aimed at tackling the spread of extremist content online. all three of the platforms have already taken measures to prevent terrorist propaganda but politicians around the world say more needs to be done. what if there was a sort of baby monitor for businesses that allowed companies to check up on their projects, even if they're not on site to see them? our next guest has a firm that lets companies do just that. it uses the latest technology to access more than 150 earth satellites from commercial operators that can curate 10 million square kilometres of new images every day.

the construction industry is key to their client base. they monitor more than 15,000 construction sites over the middle east, north africa, china, north america and europe. with us is corentin guillo, the founder and chief executive of bird. i. nice to see you. thanks for coming in. as soon as i heard about your company today and read the information, i thought, company today and read the information, ithought, why company today and read the information, i thought, why do i need you? there is google maps. i think that's a good question and one we ask, but what you have to keep in mind is that that is just a snapshot of the planet and the data is very out of date. in the main cities in the world, the data is replaced every six months, outside cities, every six months, outside cities, every two years and outside that, every two years and outside that, every five years. we have satellites

which are available but not access markets. give us an example of where this would be useful. the satellites, i think it is interesting to understand how the satellites work. they orbit around the earth on a global basis, but they also depend on weather conditions. he could get access to satellite images all over the world but the countries in the middle east are good for this because the weather is good. at the start of the bird.i story, we discovered that construction companies in the middle east are really ready for this technology because the market there is growing so quickly that they cannot keep up—to—date with it. is growing so quickly that they cannot keep up-to-date with it. we have been looking at pictures of the middle east and when you see a construction site, you can zoom right in and see what work has been done, what is still outstanding. but why can't you use something like

skype? they could hold it up on the ground and show you? what do you get from this that you can't get from other technology. i think the main value of this is that its evidence. you have a photo that shows you what it looks like today and you cannot argue with this. it takes a lot of time to call contractors if you have 15,000 sites. with the satellite imagery and the information we extra ct, imagery and the information we extract, you have an up—to—date view of the site and you are also told when the site starts and stops to progress. when you told me about the costs of it, i must admit, i thought, wow, that's expensive. but to an individual, it's expensive, but to businesses, it's not really, is it, in terms of what it is saving them? no. for individuals, they are not educated to start using this type of business because they have google maps and that is enough. but

for businesses, using this differently, consuming the images could cost you 5000. we have a system where people can subscribe and then they pay the one price to find all the images. you are a frenchman he decided to start your company in scotland ? frenchman he decided to start your company in scotland? why? when i started the company, i moved from being at the london oxford area to scotla nd being at the london oxford area to scotland because they build more spacecraft than any whereas in the world. they have fantastic universities and talent there and i knew i could not do this on my own. richard dunbar, our other guest in the wings is cheering what you just said.

the scotland connection. thanks very much for coming in. it's been absolutely fascinating. we are going to talk more about what is in the newspapers, specifically about the us and how the tax cuts that are affecting people. before that, how you can get in touch with us. stay up—to—date on the bbc‘s business live page with information from our team of editors right around the globe. we also want to hear from you. around the globe. we also want to hearfrom you. get around the globe. we also want to hear from you. get involved on the bbc‘s business live page. business live, on tv and online. what you need to know, when you need to know. so, we asked you to get involved and you have done today. it has been brilliant to your views on our top story which has been about the likes

of twitter, facebook, youtube getting a grilling in the united states about extremist material on their platforms. what have people been saying? trevor says, no, no more regulation because who defines what is extremist? another one said would it really sells the problem because then another one just sells the problem because then another onejust springs sells the problem because then another one just springs up. if you regulate one, you have to regulate them all. lies shouldn't be unchallenged, assuming all of the material is false, some of it is not. another one says terrorism is go too wired now for anything to generate clicks. more on that later when they are called to account over the spread of online extremist content. richard is back, as promised. why are facebook, twitter etc in the

news for other reasons today? they are very well run companies, we all use their products, but there is a lot of focus today on the media power that they have and whether that power is being properly used. i think the regulators are firmly parked on these company's lawns and what's important is that these companies have led to the rise in the markets wall street, and if that charge was to falter at all, that would have implications for the broader stock market. they certainly have led the charge, there is no doubt about that. the share price increase last year was quite something. with those in your portfolio, you'd be loving, wouldn't you? their portfolio, you'd be loving, wouldn't you ? their profits portfolio, you'd be loving, wouldn't you? their profits have followed. i know twitter, our previous guest was saying is not doing so well, but the rest of them are, aren't they? they

are. you are absolutely right. we are. you are absolutely right. we are starting to see profits and cash being generated by these companies and expectations of decent profits and expectations of decent profits and cash flow going forwards. if regulators and politicians tanks are parked on the lawns, that is a problem for these companies, i suspect. shall we talk about the markel sparkle, as it is being called? the story is that what meghan markle wares will drive business. how do they work this out? i suspect it would be getting rather than forecasting. i know the wedding well contribute to the economy but

the point of this article is that it overta kes the point of this article is that it overtakes kate middleton. time will towel. it is interesting that both kate and meghan, the whole group have used that power to promote british business and expertise, they recognise the power they have and i think they have used it well over the years. what are you going to be doing on maybe... maybe 18? i'm not sure. i should have researched it. it isa researched it. it is a saturday, isn't it, so no day off. no, we are not getting a day off. that would have boosted the economy. 0r that would have boosted the economy. or maybe it wouldn't.” that would have boosted the economy. or maybe it wouldn't. i await instructions on what i am doing on that day. did you find out the date? no, ididn't. that day. did you find out the date? no, i didn't. we are not royal correspondence for a reason. see you soon. hello, we have had some severe

disruption overnight because of the snow across parts of northern ireland, northern england and scotland. the m74 saw drivers stranded last night and this was malware is in scotland. you can see the northerly wind bringing northern ireland and scotland in line for the strongest showers. expect more snow showers, especially across western and some parts of scotland through the afternoon. not so many further east and just like northern ireland, those showers will start to lose some of their wintry element. some continuing across northern england but not so many across much of england and wales. some sunshine here, not quite as cold as yesterday, with cloud starting to increase later in the afternoon across western wales and england.

showers for devon and cornwall but here, quite mild compared to other parts of the country. our eyes turn to the west then with this area of low pressure pushing its weight eastwards overnight. that will bring gales in places with heavy rain and also more snow, particularly for northern ireland, scotland, and later in the night, potentially disruptive snow across parts of northern england. coupled with that, strong winds widely gusting to 40 to 70 mph, and also an ice risk as temperatures get close to if not below freezing. 0nce temperatures get close to if not below freezing. once again, the greatest ice risk across northern ireland and scotland. multiple things to considerfor ireland and scotland. multiple things to consider for travelling overnight abu the early hours of tomorrow. severe gales, heavy rain, snow and also further eyes so disruption is possible. keep an eye out on your bbc local radio. behind that once again will be wintry

showers for northern ireland, scotland, stretching down into parts of northern england. a bit of sunshine further south. temperatures generally between three and nine celsius, 11 in the channel islands. we do it all again on friday. showers still wintry across northern ireland and scotland, not quite so many, but still on the cold side for sure. bye—bye. hello it's wednesday, it's 9 o'clock, i'm victoria derbyshire, welcome to the programme. tens of thousands of nurses are leaving the nhs in england every year, piling pressure on over—stretched wards and community services. and the number leaving is greater than the number of nurses training. at the moment we are struggling because now nurses have lost their bursary it's a struggle to get them in. when you've got to pay £9000 and also have the privilege of working nights and shifts, that's really difficult. we'll be live at birmingham children's hospital. as police release more details about the 13 siblings held captive in california,

we'll speak to people with personal experience of being kidnapped. and held captive. also this morning — would you be more productive if you worked less?