Contributions
2,978 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDOnline Harm: Women and GirlsYes, I can categorically give that assurance. There has been some misinformation around this issue. First, there is nothing at all in the Bill that requires social media firms to…26 May 2022HANSARDOnline Harm: Women and GirlsThose things are already priority offences in schedule 7 to the Bill. The Bill went into Committee on Tuesday and I look forward to discussing with the shadow Minister and other…26 May 2022HANSARDOnline Harm: Women and GirlsI strongly dispute the suggestion that the Bill does not protect women and girls. I have already said in response to the hon. Member for Hornsey and Wood Green (Catherine West)…26 May 2022HANSARDOnline Harm: Women and GirlsYes. The Bill is technology-agnostic, meaning that it does not refer specifically to technology because, obviously, technologies evolve all the time. My hon. Friend touches on…26 May 2022HANSARDOnline Harm: Women and GirlsThe Online Safety Bill, which went into Committee on Tuesday, rightly has extremely strong protections for women and girls. The hon. Lady will have noticed that, in schedule 7,…26 May 2022HANSARDOnline Safety Bill (Third sitting)Q But a piece of legislation has to do more than express a preference; it has to create a statutory duty. I am just saying that that is quite challenging in this context. William…26 May 2022HANSARDOnline Safety Bill (Third sitting)Q Thank you. Would you accept that the level of specificity that you have just outlined there is very difficult, if not impossible, to put in a piece of primary legislation?…26 May 2022HANSARDRacehorsesI thank my hon. Friend for his clear articulation of the issue and his powerful expression of it. I will certainly convey that to Treasury colleagues who are currently considering…26 May 2022HANSARDOnline Safety Bill (Fourth sitting)Q The Bill contains provisions that require companies to do risk assessments that cover their algorithms, and then to be transparent about those risk assessments with Ofcom. Do…26 May 2022HANSARDOnline Safety Bill (Fourth sitting)Q When I was asking questions on Tuesday, the representative of Meta made a second claim that raised my eyebrow. He claimed that, in designing its algorithms, it did not primarily…26 May 2022HANSARDOnline Safety Bill (Fourth sitting)Q Thank you for joining us and giving evidence, Frances; it is nice to see you again. We had evidence from Meta, your former employer, on Tuesday, in which its representative…26 May 2022HANSARDOnline Safety Bill (Fourth sitting)Q I want to pick up on Martin Lewis’s point about enforcement. He said that he had to sue Facebook himself, which was no doubt an onerous, painful and costly enterprise—at least…26 May 2022HANSARDOnline Safety Bill (Fourth sitting)Q In clause 35 there is the drafting point that we are looking at. It says “minimise the risk” instead of “prevent”. You are right to point out that drafting issue. In relation to…26 May 2022HANSARDOnline Safety Bill (Fourth sitting)Q Mr Fassam, I will address those two questions, if I may. Search is covered by clause 35 and user-generated content is subject to the Bill’s general provisions on user-generated…26 May 2022HANSARDOnline Safety Bill (Fourth sitting)I commend your ingenuity in levering an appeal for more digital competition into this discussion. Thank you.26 May 2022HANSARDOnline Safety Bill (Fourth sitting)Q From a general free speech perspective—which obviously includes the press’s freedom of speech, but everybody else’s as well—what do you think about the right enshrined in clause…26 May 2022HANSARDOnline Safety Bill (Fourth sitting)Thank you. That is very helpful. Mr Rogerson? Matt Rogerson: As we know, this is a world first: regulation of the internet, regulation of speech acts on the internet. From a news…26 May 2022HANSARDOnline Safety Bill (Fourth sitting)Q Meta claimed in evidence to the Committee on Tuesday that it gave researchers good access to its data. Do you think that is true? Eva Hartshorn-Sanders: I think it depends on…26 May 2022HANSARDOnline Safety Bill (Fourth sitting)Q That clearly illustrates the problem we have. Two parts of the Bill are designed to address this: first, the ability for designated user representation groups to raise…26 May 2022HANSARDOnline Safety Bill (Fourth sitting)Q Thank you for joining us this afternoon and for giving us your evidence so far. At the beginning of your testimony, Ms Hartshorn-Sanders, I think you mentioned—I want to ensure…26 May 2022