Source · Select Committees · Treasury Committee
Recommendation 13
13
Accepted
We agree with the Joint Committee that the Draft Online Safety Bill should be amended...
Recommendation
We agree with the Joint Committee that the Draft Online Safety Bill should be amended so as to include fraud offences in the list of “relevant offences” in Clause 41(4) of the Bill. Fraudulent content should be designated as “priority illegal content”, thereby requiring online firms to be proactive rather than reactive in removing it from their platforms. These steps would place greater responsibility on online companies to prevent their platforms from being used to promote financial fraud, something of which these online firms are capable. (Paragraph 74) Economic Crime 73
Government response summary AI-generated
The Government announced that it would be strengthening the Online Safety Bill to include user-generated fraud offences, legally requiring social media platforms and search engines to take steps to protect their users from fraudulent content.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government · verbatim extract
Accepted
We strongly agree with the Committee. Our written submission to the Online Safety Bill (OSB) Scrutiny Committee set out our hope that to help achieve the Government’s stated aim of ensuring the UK is the safest place in the world to be online, the Bill should be amended to: Designate content relating to fraud offences as priority illegal content Extend the duties in the Bill to cover fraudulent content contained within paid-for advertising We have therefore welcomed the Government’s recent announcements regarding important amendments to the draft Bill. First, that fraud-related offences would indeed be designated as ‘priority illegal’. This will mean that instead of platforms only being required to take fraudulent content down after having been alerted to it, now they will need to be proactive and prevent individuals from being exposed to such content. Second, that the OSB will now require the largest platforms to tackle fraudulent paid for advertising. We have been clear about the need for legislation and appreciate the Government’s and the Committee’s positive engagement o n this. We look forward to working closely with the Government and regulatory partners as the details of the draft Bill are finalised, tabled in Parliament and implemented.
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