Source · Select Committees · Petitions Committee
Recommendation 12
12
Rejected
Paragraph: 55
We recommend that the Online Safety Bill requires smaller (non-category 1) platforms to take steps...
Recommendation
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 towards individuals or communities.
Government response summary AI-generated
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.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Paragraph Reference:
55
Government Response
Rejected
HM Government · verbatim extract
Rejected
We thank the Committee for this recommendation. An overarching principle of the Bill is to ensure that what is unacceptable offline is also unacceptable online. This is why all in-scope services will be required to tackle illegal content and ensure any children using their services are protected from harm. Recognising the influence of larger platforms, the Bill also introduces a categorisation approach to ensure the most used services are accountable to their users. Services providing high-risk, high-reach services (known as Category 1 services) will therefore have a legal obligation with regard to content and activity which is legal for adults but may be harmful to them. However, we do not think it is appropriate for the Government to require platforms to remove or interfere with legal content. This is why the duties are focused on increasing transparency about the risks on Category 1 Service, and ensuring companies set and enforce clear terms of service for how they will treat harmful content. This will enable users to make informed decisions about the platforms they use. This approach is also designed to be proportionate and to not place burdens on smaller services that do not have high reach, recognising that adult users may wish to seek out this content. Moreover, harmful material is likely to cause the most harm on Category 1 services with the largest audiences and a range of high-risk features, where it can spread quickly and reach large numbers of people.
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