Contributions
2,186 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDONLINE SAFETY BILL (Second sitting)It totally depends on the scenario. It is very difficult for me to stand here now and give a wide number of examples, but the Secretary of State will be reacting to a given…13 Dec 2022HANSARDONLINE SAFETY BILL (Second sitting)The different platforms, approaches and conditions will necessitate different numbers; it would be hard to pin a number down. The wording is vague and wide-ranging because it is…13 Dec 2022HANSARDONLINE SAFETY BILL (Second sitting)This has been a helpful debate. Everyone was right that transparency must be and is at the heart of the Bill. From when we were talking earlier today about how risk assessments…13 Dec 2022HANSARDONLINE SAFETY BILL (Second sitting)I do not believe that the provisions in terms of Ofcom’s transparency powers have been watered down. It is really important that the Bill’s protection for adults strikes the right…13 Dec 2022HANSARDONLINE SAFETY BILL (Second sitting)I will have a go at that, but I am happy to write to the hon. Lady if I do not respond as fully as she wants. Down-ranking content is a moderation action, as she says, but it is…13 Dec 2022HANSARDONLINE SAFETY BILL (Second sitting)Absolutely. There are plenty of reasons why platforms will rank users’ content, including down-ranking it. Providing personal content recommendations will have that process in it…13 Dec 2022HANSARDONLINE SAFETY BILL (Second sitting)I beg to move amendment 28, in clause 20, page 21, line 42, after “have” insert “particular”. This amendment has the result that providers of regulated user-to-user services must…13 Dec 2022HANSARDONLINE SAFETY BILL (Second sitting)I will be brief. The rights to freedom of expression and privacy are essential to our democracy. We have long been clear that the Bill must not interfere with those rights. The…13 Dec 2022HANSARDONLINE SAFETY BILL (Second sitting)I beg to move amendment 19, in clause 18, page 19, line 32, leave out from “also” to second “section”. This is a technical amendment relating to Amendment 20.13 Dec 2022HANSARDONLINE SAFETY BILL (Second sitting)I endorse the general approach set out by the hon. Member for Pontypridd. We do not want to define freedom of speech based on a personal poll carried out on one platform. That is…13 Dec 2022HANSARDONLINE SAFETY BILL (Second sitting)I follow, but I do not agree. The categories of content in proposed new subsections (8C) and (8D), introduced by amendment 15, underpin a lot of this. I answered the question in…13 Dec 2022HANSARDONLINE SAFETY BILL (Second sitting)The definitions that we have taken are ones that strike the right balance and have a comparatively high threshold, so that they do not capture challenging and robust discussions…13 Dec 2022HANSARDONLINE SAFETY BILL (Second sitting)The amendment does not talk about vaccine efficacy; it talks about content that is harmful to health. That is a wide-ranging thing.13 Dec 2022HANSARDONLINE SAFETY BILL (Second sitting)I am happy to do that. In the same way that we spoke this morning about children’s protection, I am very aware of the terms of service and what people are getting into by looking…13 Dec 2022HANSARDONLINE SAFETY BILL (Second sitting)Absolutely. We have captured that in other parts of the Bill, but I wanted to make that specific bit clear because I am not sure whether I understood or answered my hon. Friend’s…13 Dec 2022HANSARDONLINE SAFETY BILL (Second sitting)I do not think the hon. Lady is seriously suggesting that people can communicate only via Facebook—via one platform. The point is that there are a variety of methods of…13 Dec 2022HANSARDONLINE SAFETY BILL (Second sitting)The hon. Lady makes a good point. I talked about the offline world rather than the real world, but clearly that can happen. That is where the balance has to be struck, as we heard…13 Dec 2022HANSARDONLINE SAFETY BILL (Second sitting)The onus on adults is very much a safety net—very much a catch-all, after we have put the onus on the social media companies and the platforms to adhere to their own terms and…13 Dec 2022HANSARDONLINE SAFETY BILL (Second sitting)Hate crime legislation will always be considered by the Ministry of Justice, but I am not committing to any changes. That is beyond my reach, but the two shields that we talked…13 Dec 2022HANSARDONLINE SAFETY BILL (Second sitting)I absolutely agree. As I said in my opening remarks about the racial abuse picked up in relation to the Euro 2020 football championship, that would have been against the terms and…13 Dec 2022