Online Harm Women and Girls 2022-05-26
2022-05-26
TAGS
Response quality
Questions & Answers
Q1
Direct Answer
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Context
The Online Safety Bill is in Committee. Catherine West raises concerns about the level of protection from online harm for women and girls.
What assessment has been made of the potential impact of provisions in the Online Safety Bill on the level of protection from online harm and abuse for women and girls?
The Online Safety Bill rightly has strong protections for women and girls, with schedule 7 designating crimes such as harassment, stalking, revenge porn, and extreme porn as priority offences. These require social media firms to proactively prevent such content from appearing online.
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Assessment & feedback
Response accuracy
Q2
Direct Answer
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Context
The MP asks about penalties for social media firms that fail in their duty to protect young girls from online harms, highlighting a rise in eating disorders and suicidal thoughts.
Will the Minister consider what penalties can be brought against social media companies that fail in their duty to protect young girls and women given the increase in eating disorders and suicidal thoughts? What action will the Minister take on this issue?
Fines up to 10% of global revenue can be imposed if social media companies breach their duties. In extreme cases, persistent failure could result in denial of service provisions, where platforms' ability to transmit into the UK could be disconnected.
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Assessment & feedback
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Q3
Direct Answer
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Context
The MP asks about the recent Financial Conduct Authority warning of an 86% increase in screen-sharing scams over the past year.
Will the Minister consider amending the Online Safety Bill to address the significant rise in screen-sharing scams as highlighted by the FCA?
Yes, the Minister is willing to meet with Andrew Bridgen to discuss amending the Bill for screen-sharing scams. The Bill includes advertisements that promote fraud in its scope of duties.
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Assessment & feedback
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Q4
Partial Answer
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Context
The MP questions why violence against women and girls is not explicitly named as a priority offence in the Online Safety Bill despite widespread support for tackling this issue.
Why have the Government failed to tackle violence against women and girls online by including misogyny as a priority offence in the Bill?
I strongly dispute that the bill does not protect women and girls. New cyber-flashing offences have been created, and crimes like harassment, stalking, and revenge porn are designated as priority offences.
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Assessment & feedback
Alex Davies-Jones' specific ask on including misogyny in the Bill was not directly addressed.
Response accuracy
Q5
Direct Answer
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Context
The MP welcomes the bill's efforts to protect people from harm but expresses concern about unintentionally restricting freedom of speech.
Will my hon. Friend reassure me that we will ensure we stay on the right side of protecting freedom of speech and not restrict opinions by conflating them with actual harms?
Yes, I can categorically give that assurance. The Bill has a provision for free speech, expressly providing social media firms to have regard to it without requiring censorship of legal and harmless content.
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