Select committee: Petitions Committee
Recommendation 22
Second Report - Tackling online abuse
Published 1 Feb 2022
Paragraph 92
Petitions Committee Tackling Online Abuse All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
Anonymous abuse online is significant in both its volume and impact. However, the evidence we heard suggested that tackling the abuse being perpetrated under the cloak of anonymity, rather than imposing restrictions on online anonymity, should be the focus of efforts to resolve this problem. Allowing users to post anonymously does nonetheless entail a risk that this capability is misused, and so it would be sensible and proportionate for online platforms to be required to specifically evaluate—and consider what steps could be taken in response to—links between anonymity and abusive content on their platform.
From: Petitions Committee, Second Report - Tackling online abuse (HC 766), paragraph 92, 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.