Select committee: Petitions Committee
Conclusion 16
Second Report - Tackling online abuse
Published 1 Feb 2022
Paragraph 77
Petitions Committee Tackling Online Abuse All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
The Law Commission is right to recommend refocusing online communications offences onto the harm abusive messages can cause to victims. We welcome the Government’s commitment to adopt the proposed threatening and ‘harm-based’ communications offences. However, we also acknowledge the uncertainty and hesitation of some witnesses about how the new harm-based offence will be Tackling Online Abuse 49 interpreted in practice, including the role of social media companies and other online platforms in identifying this content—as well as other witnesses’ desire for the law to deal with more cases of online abuse more strongly.
From: Petitions Committee, Second Report - Tackling online abuse (HC 766), paragraph 77, 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.