Recommendations & Conclusions
6 items
4
Recommendation
Second Report - Tackling online abuse
Rejected
It is appropriate for legal but harmful content to be included in the scope of the Online Safety Bill. The balance of evidence we heard suggests that it is necessary to address this content in the Bill to help protect people from online abuse and promote free speech among groups …
Government response. The government rejects including a comprehensive indication of harmful content in primary legislation, stating they will use secondary legislation to designate priority harmful content after consulting with Ofcom. This approach aims to balance certainty for businesses with the flexibility to …
6
Recommendation
Second Report - Tackling online abuse
Rejected
We recommend that the Online Safety Bill should include a statutory duty for the Government to consult with civil society organisations representing children and users who are most affected by online abuse on the legislation’s ongoing effectiveness at tackling online abuse, and how it could be refined to better achieve …
Government response. The government rejected the recommendation for a statutory duty to consult civil society, explaining that the Secretary of State has flexibility to consult as appropriate and Ofcom already has extensive consultation duties under the Bill.
11
Recommendation
Second Report - Tackling online abuse
Rejected
Abusive content hosted on smaller platforms can play a significant role in helping to encourage prejudicial attitudes or even real-world harm. Failure to address this content would risk significantly undermining the potential impact of the proposed online safety legislation in tackling online and offline hate. The duties set out in …
Government response. The government rejects the recommendation to apply duties for legal but harmful content to a wider range of platforms, arguing that it is not appropriate to require removal of legal content and that the current proportionate categorisation focuses on high-reach …
12
Recommendation
Second Report - Tackling online abuse
Rejected
We recommend that the Online Safety Bill requires smaller (non-category 1) platforms to take steps to protect users from content that is legal but harmful to adults, with a particular focus on ensuring these platforms cannot be used to host content that has the potential to encourage hate or prejudice …
Government response. The government rejects requiring smaller platforms to tackle legal but harmful content to adults, stating it is not appropriate to mandate interference with legal content. They reaffirm the Bill's proportionate approach, which focuses these duties on high-reach Category 1 services.
14
Conclusion
Second Report - Tackling online abuse
Rejected
The Government’s regulatory proposals should encourage social media companies to prevent or reduce the risk of users being harmed by abusive and hateful content in the first place, not just remove or otherwise deal with such content as it arises. However, the draft Online Safety Bill gives Ofcom very limited …
Government response. The government rejects reformulating the regulatory framework, arguing its current design creates specific duties for platforms to assess and mitigate risks for different harm categories, and provides proportionate systems to remove illegal and child-harming content. They believe this approach is …
15
Recommendation
Second Report - Tackling online abuse
Rejected
We support calls for the Online Safety Bill to include a foundational duty on platforms to protect users from reasonably foreseeable risks of harm identified in their risk assessments, including harm arising from abusive content that is legal but harmful to adults. We recommend that this should include an explicit …
Government response. The government rejects the recommendation for a single foundational duty to protect users from foreseeable harm, arguing it would create an uncertain operating environment. However, it states the Bill already requires service providers to assess risks linked to service design …