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1400305

registered interest
date	06/01/2022
answering body	Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept id	10
answering dept short name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept sort name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
hansard heading	Social Media
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that digital and social media platforms apply equitable (a) terms, (b) conditions and (c) policies to (i) general, (ii) local, (iii) specialist and (iv) individual news reporters.
tabling member constituency	Solihull
tabling member printed	Julian Knight
uin	98973
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/01/2022 answer text <p>The Online Safety Bill will create a new legal requirement on the biggest social media companies to put in place safeguards for journalistic content shared on their platforms. They will need to put in place policies to ensure that the importance of journalistic content is taken into account when making moderation decisions and apply these consistently and transparently. Platforms will be required to ensure protections are applied to all content produced for the purposes of journalism, irrespective of the individual or organisation that generated the content.</p> answering member constituency Croydon South answering member printed Chris Philp question first answered 13/01/2022 13:50:58 answering member 4503 label Biography information for Chris Philp
tabling member	4410 label Biography information for Julian Knight

1363262

registered interest
date	25/10/2021
answering body	Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept id	10
answering dept short name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept sort name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
hansard heading	Social Media
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to force social media platforms to stop amplifying hateful content via their algorithms.
tabling member printed	Lord Taylor of Warwick
uin	HL3415
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/10/2021 answer text <p>Under the new Online Safety Bill, companies will need to mitigate the risks of harm associated with their algorithms, for example by preventing them from recommending particular types of content, or by giving users additional control over the content with which they interact.</p><p>Major platforms will have to publish annual transparency reports, setting out what they are doing to tackle online harms, including information about algorithms.</p><p>Ofcom will have further powers available to help it assess whether companies are fulfilling their duties, including in relation to algorithms. This will include powers to require information from companies, to require an expert report on a platform, and to access premises, data and equipment.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay question first answered 29/10/2021 13:37:27 answering member 4728 label Biography information for Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay
tabling member	1796 label Biography information for Lord Taylor of Warwick

1341143

registered interest
date	28/06/2021
answering body	Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept id	10
answering dept short name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept sort name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
hansard heading	Social Media
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether it is his policy to require all user generated content on social media that has been filtered or altered to be identifiable as such.
tabling member constituency	St Albans
tabling member printed	Daisy Cooper
uin	23341
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 02/07/2021 answer text <p>The government does not require all filtered or altered content to be identifiable as such on social media.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>However, the Online Safety Bill will impose new duties on social media companies to address the harm that may be caused by user-generated content, including altered or filtered content, on their services. These duties will apply to illegal content and other content that may have a serious adverse physical or psychological impact on children and, in the case of the largest social media companies, on adults.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>The Government has committed to publishing the Online Media Literacy Strategy which will complement the regulatory regime to support online safety. The Strategy will empower users with the skills and knowledge they need to make safer and more informed decisions online. This will include promoting critical thinking skills, and understanding that the online environment is not always reflective of reality.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Gosport answering member printed Caroline Dinenage question first answered 02/07/2021 10:46:41 answering member 4008 label Biography information for Dame Caroline Dinenage
tabling member	4769 label Biography information for Daisy Cooper

1282540

registered interest
date	01/02/2021
answering body	Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept id	10
answering dept short name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept sort name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
hansard heading	Social Media
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps the Government is taking to tackle the threat to UK public life from (a) professionalised and organised bot activity, (b) trolling or doxing, and (c) politically-motivated polarisation.
tabling member constituency	Midlothian
tabling member printed	Owen Thompson
uin	146942
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/02/2021 answer text <p>The Government takes the issues of disinformation, online manipulation and abuse very seriously and remains committed to strengthening the integrity of our electoral system and giving the public confidence that our elections are modern, fair and secure.</p><p>The Defending Democracy programme is working to ensure a joined-up cross-Government approach to safeguarding UK democracy. The programme’s objectives are to protect democratic processes; strengthen the integrity of elections; encourage respect for open and safe democratic participation; and promote open, fact-based discourse.</p><p>The Government is committed to ensuring that democratic events are delivered safely and securely. During major democratic events the Government stands up an Election Cell. This is a coordination structure that works with stakeholders to identify and respond to emerging issues.</p><p>Online abuse of any kind is unacceptable.To ensure the law is fit for purpose to tackle abuses online, we have asked the Law Commission to review our laws on harmful and abusive online communications and highlight any gaps in the criminal law that cause problems in tackling this abuse. The Law Commission has consulted on provisional reforms and will issue final recommendations by summer 2021, which the government will carefully consider.</p><p>In addition, the Government has established a dedicated Counter Disinformation Unit. The Unit stands up during periods of heightened vulnerability such as democratic events, and supports the Election Cell by providing a picture of the extent, scope and the reach disinformation and working with partners to identify and respond to it in line with platform terms and conditions. The Unit was previously stood up during the European Parliamentary Election and UK General Election in 2019. It stood up in March 2020 in support of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic and remains operational.</p><p>The Government is also preparing legislation to address some of these issues. Last year we published the Full Government Response to the Online Harms White Paper consultation, which sets out the new expectations on companies to keep their users safe online.</p><p>The Online Safety Bill will establish a new duty of care on companies towards their users, overseen by an independent regulator. Under the new framework, companies will be held to account for tackling illegal activity and content, such as illegal online abuse and illegal hate crime. Some companies will also need to address legal but harmful content for adults, including some forms of online abuse.</p><p>We are also developing a package of electoral integrity measures which we will bring forward when Parliamentary time allows.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Gosport answering member printed Caroline Dinenage grouped question UIN 146943 146944 question first answered 05/02/2021 15:59:59 answering member 4008 label Biography information for Dame Caroline Dinenage
tabling member	4482 label Biography information for Owen Thompson

1282541

registered interest
date	01/02/2021
answering body	Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept id	10
answering dept short name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept sort name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
hansard heading	Social Media
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment the Government has made of the level of threat of (a) professionalised and organised bot activity, (b) trolling or doxing, and (c) politically motivated polarisation to UK public life (i) in general and (ii) in the context of the upcoming May elections.
tabling member constituency	Midlothian
tabling member printed	Owen Thompson
uin	146943
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/02/2021 answer text <p>The Government takes the issues of disinformation, online manipulation and abuse very seriously and remains committed to strengthening the integrity of our electoral system and giving the public confidence that our elections are modern, fair and secure.</p><p>The Defending Democracy programme is working to ensure a joined-up cross-Government approach to safeguarding UK democracy. The programme’s objectives are to protect democratic processes; strengthen the integrity of elections; encourage respect for open and safe democratic participation; and promote open, fact-based discourse.</p><p>The Government is committed to ensuring that democratic events are delivered safely and securely. During major democratic events the Government stands up an Election Cell. This is a coordination structure that works with stakeholders to identify and respond to emerging issues.</p><p>Online abuse of any kind is unacceptable.To ensure the law is fit for purpose to tackle abuses online, we have asked the Law Commission to review our laws on harmful and abusive online communications and highlight any gaps in the criminal law that cause problems in tackling this abuse. The Law Commission has consulted on provisional reforms and will issue final recommendations by summer 2021, which the government will carefully consider.</p><p>In addition, the Government has established a dedicated Counter Disinformation Unit. The Unit stands up during periods of heightened vulnerability such as democratic events, and supports the Election Cell by providing a picture of the extent, scope and the reach disinformation and working with partners to identify and respond to it in line with platform terms and conditions. The Unit was previously stood up during the European Parliamentary Election and UK General Election in 2019. It stood up in March 2020 in support of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic and remains operational.</p><p>The Government is also preparing legislation to address some of these issues. Last year we published the Full Government Response to the Online Harms White Paper consultation, which sets out the new expectations on companies to keep their users safe online.</p><p>The Online Safety Bill will establish a new duty of care on companies towards their users, overseen by an independent regulator. Under the new framework, companies will be held to account for tackling illegal activity and content, such as illegal online abuse and illegal hate crime. Some companies will also need to address legal but harmful content for adults, including some forms of online abuse.</p><p>We are also developing a package of electoral integrity measures which we will bring forward when Parliamentary time allows.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Gosport answering member printed Caroline Dinenage grouped question UIN 146942 146944 question first answered 05/02/2021 15:59:59 answering member 4008 label Biography information for Dame Caroline Dinenage
tabling member	4482 label Biography information for Owen Thompson

1278226

registered interest
date	19/01/2021
answering body	Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept id	10
answering dept short name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept sort name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
hansard heading	Social Media
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what plans he has for social media reform.
tabling member constituency	Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough
tabling member printed	Gill Furniss
uin	140225
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/01/2021 answer text <p>The Government is firmly committed to making the UK the safest place to be online.</p><p>The Full Government Response to the Online Harms White Paper consultation, published in December 2020, sets out expectations on tech companies, including social media providers, to keep their users safe online. This includes a proposed legal duty of care on companies and the appointment of a new communications regulator, Ofcom, to ensure that new laws are enforced.The Full Government Response will be followed by legislation, which will be ready later this year.</p> answering member constituency Gosport answering member printed Caroline Dinenage question first answered 25/01/2021 09:24:10 answering member 4008 label Biography information for Dame Caroline Dinenage
tabling member	4571 label Biography information for Gill Furniss

1275220

registered interest
date	11/01/2021
answering body	Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept id	10
answering dept short name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept sort name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
hansard heading	Social Media
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of applying BBFC ratings to user-generated video content on YouTube, Facebook and similar sites and linking those ratings to parental filters.
tabling member constituency	Newcastle upon Tyne Central
tabling member printed	Chi Onwurah
uin	135927
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/01/2021 answer text <p>It is vital that children are protected from accessing age-inappropriate, harmful content online. We have now published the Full Government Response to the Online Harms White Paper consultation, which sets out how the proposed legal duty of care on online companies will work in practice and gives them new responsibilities towards their users. The strongest protections in our online harms proposals are for children. All companies in scope will be required to assess whether children are likely to access their services, and if so, provide additional protections for children using them. Companies will need to take steps to protect children from harmful content and activity on their service. We will set out in secondary legislation the priority harms that this regulation will tackle, in consultation with Ofcom. Ofcom will then set out in Codes of Practice the steps companies can take to protect children from harm on their services.</p><p>Ahead of Online Harms legislation, Regulations transposing the revised Audiovisual Media Services Directive came into force on 1 November 2020 which require UK-established video sharing platforms to take appropriate measures to protect minors from harmful content and all users from illegal content. The Regulations require that the most harmful content is subject to the strongest protections, such as age assurance or more technical measures. Ofcom, as the regulatory authority, may take robust enforcement action against video sharing platforms which do not adopt measures to adequately protect their users.</p><p>Over the past year we have been working with the BBFC and industry to drive the voluntary adoption of the BBFC’s age rating symbols to Video On Demand platforms. Doing so will provide consumers with well recognised age ratings and consumer advice.</p><p><strong> </strong></p> answering member constituency Gosport answering member printed Caroline Dinenage grouped question UIN 135926 question first answered 15/01/2021 16:39:36 answering member 4008 label Biography information for Dame Caroline Dinenage
tabling member	4124 label Biography information for Chi Onwurah

1175343

registered interest
date	27/01/2020
answering body	Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept id	10
answering dept short name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept sort name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
hansard heading	Social Media
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with owners of social media platforms about the support they provide to workers who moderate content.
tabling member printed	Lord Taylor of Warwick
uin	HL813
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/02/2020 answer text <p>Ministers and officials have regular meetings with social media companies on a range of issues, including support provided to workers who moderate content on their platforms. Details of Ministerial meetings are published quarterly on the<a href="https://www.gov.uk/" target="_blank"> Gov.uk</a> website.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Baroness Barran question first answered 13/02/2020 17:38:24 answering member 4703 label Biography information for Baroness Barran
tabling member	1796 label Biography information for Lord Taylor of Warwick

1169478

registered interest
date	08/01/2020
answering body	Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept id	10
answering dept short name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept sort name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
hansard heading	Social Media
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to ensure the accuracy of content loader information on social media.
tabling member constituency	Hendon
tabling member printed	Dr Matthew Offord
uin	1385
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/01/2020 answer text <p>We published the Online Harms White Paper in April last year, setting out plans for world-leading legislation to make the UK the safest place in the world to be online.</p><p>Our proposals would establish a new statutory duty of care on companies towards their users, overseen by an independent regulator. The duty of care will ensure companies have appropriate systems and processes in place to deal with harmful content on their services to keep their users safe</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Boston and Skegness answering member printed Matt Warman question first answered 16/01/2020 15:52:39 answering member 4361 label Biography information for Matt Warman
tabling member	4006 label Biography information for Dr Matthew Offord

1169661

registered interest
date	08/01/2020
answering body	Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept id	10
answering dept short name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept sort name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
hansard heading	Social Media
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether social media platforms are adequately monitored for harmful and illegal content.
tabling member printed	Lord Taylor of Warwick
uin	HL236
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/01/2020 answer text <p>We published the Online Harms White Paper in April last year, setting out plans for world-leading legislation to make the UK the safest place in the world to be online.</p><p>Our proposals would establish a new statutory duty of care on companies towards their users, overseen by an independent regulator. The duty of care will ensure companies have appropriate systems and processes in place to deal with harmful content on their services to keep their users safe.</p> answering member printed Baroness Barran question first answered 17/01/2020 13:04:35 answering member 4703 label Biography information for Baroness Barran
tabling member	1796 label Biography information for Lord Taylor of Warwick