Select committee: Petitions Committee
Recommendation 4
Second Report - Tackling online abuse
Published 1 Feb 2022
Paragraph 38
Petitions Committee Tackling Online Abuse All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
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 currently unable to fully express themselves online. However, the lack of clarity in the draft version of the Bill on what content will be covered under this definition is unhelpful. Providing greater clarity on the scope and scale of content the Government expects this definition to capture, and reducing reliance on Ministerial powers to designate such content via secondary legislation at a later date, would be more consistent with respect for freedom of expression. We recommend that the Online Safety Bill should include as comprehensive an indication as possible of what content will be covered under its provisions on content that is harmful to adults or to children in the primary legislation.
From: Petitions Committee, Second Report - Tackling online abuse (HC 766), paragraph 38, 1 February 2022
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 28 March 2022 (deadline 1 April 2022).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government welcomes the Committee's report and agrees with a number of its recommendations, while taking a different approach to others, including a statutory consultation duty, legal but harmful content on smaller platforms and a single foundational duty.
- On Recommendation 4, it agrees that hate crime and Violence against Women and Girls offences should be listed as priority illegal offences on the face of the Bill, a change announced on 5 February.
- On Recommendation 3, it does not think a statutory duty to consult civil society organisations is "necessary", citing the existing consultation provisions in the draft Bill.
- On Recommendation 7, it does not think it "appropriate" to require platforms to remove or interfere with legal content, so the duties on legal but harmful content apply to Category 1 services.
- On Recommendations 10 and 11, it is "carefully considering" the Law Commission's hate crime report and will "shortly publish" a new hate crime strategy, without stating a date.