Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

Online Safety Bill

If something is illegal offline, it is illegal online as well. There are priority areas where the company must proactively look for that. There are also non-priority areas where the company should take action against anything that is an offence in law and meets the criminal threshold online. The job of the regulator is to hold them to account for that.

Errors have been identified in my response to the hon. and learned Member for Edinburgh South West (Joanna Cherry).

The correct response should have been:

If something is illegal offline, it is illegal online as well. There are priority areas where the company must proactively look for that. There are also non-priority areas where the company should take action against anything that is an offence in law which has an individual victim and meets the criminal threshold online. The job of the regulator is to hold them to account for that.

On the amendments that the former Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for Croydon South (Chris Philp), spoke to, the word “consistently” has not been removed from the text. There is new language that follows the use of “consistently”, but the use of that word will still apply in the context of the companies’ duties to act against illegal content.

Errors have been identified in my intervention on the hon. Member for Enfield North (Feryal Clark).

The correct response should have been:

On the amendments that the former Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for Croydon South (Chris Philp), spoke to, the word “consistently” has not been removed from the text. There is new language that follows the use of “consistently”, and the use of that word will still apply across the safety duties and in particular for category 1 platforms.

A number of Members raised the issue of freedom of speech provisions, particularly my hon. Friend the Member for Windsor (Adam Afriyie) at the end of his excellent speech. We have sought to bring, in the Government amendments, additional clarity to the way the legislation works, so that it is absolutely clear what the priority legal offences are.

Errors have been identified in my response to my hon. Friend the Member for Windsor (Adam Afriyie).

The correct response should have been:

A number of Members raised the issue of freedom of speech provisions, particularly my hon. Friend the Member for Windsor (Adam Afriyie) at the end of his excellent speech. We have sought to bring, in the Government’s commitments via written ministerial statement, additional clarity to the way the legislation works, so that it is absolutely clear what the priority categories of harmful content are.

The Bill absolutely addresses the sharing of non-consensual images in that way, so that would be something the regulator should take enforcement action against—

Errors have been identified in my response to the hon. Member for Birmingham, Yardley (Jess Phillips)

The correct response should have been:

The Bill absolutely addresses the non-consensual sharing of intimate images in that way, so that would be something the regulator should take enforcement action against—