Christian Wakeford (Bury South) (Con) [V]: Earlier this year, we
witnessed the Wiley scandal, which saw an antisemitic rant over
numerous posts. It took 72 hours and a mass boycott of social media
by the Jewish community and its supporters before any action was
taken by the platforms. Does my right hon. Friend agree that the
law should apply online as it does offline and that online
platforms must do more to stop the spread of hate speech and
illegal content? The Secretary of State for...Request free trial
(Bury South) (Con) [V]: Earlier this
year, we witnessed the Wiley scandal, which saw an
antisemitic rant over numerous posts. It took 72
hours and a mass boycott of social media by the
Jewish community and its supporters before any
action was taken by the platforms. Does my right hon. Friend agree
that the law should apply online as it does offline and that online
platforms must do more to stop the spread of hate speech and
illegal content?
The Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
() : My hon. Friend makes a very important
point about antisemitic abuse. I have met
organisations about that in framing the legislation. Most
antisemitism is illegal and should be addressed
through the provisions made for illegality. Beyond that, we will be
setting out, as a priority, harms to be addressed through this
legislation.
(Barking) (Lab) [V]: I, too, welcome this statement. In
the past two months, Community Security Trust has identified
90,000 posts mentioning me. Most were hostile, antisemitic,
misogynistic and ageist. Many were anonymous and, through
disinformation, aimed to undermine my credibility and so silence
me. I would ask the Secretary of State to think again. Does he not
agree that anonymity on social media can no longer be universally
protected, although it should be protected for groups such as
whistleblowers and victims of domestic violence? Will he not agree
that where users post illegal content or harmful abuse, social
media companies should be required to collect and pass on
information on the identity of the user to regulatory bodies and to
the police?
: The right hon. Lady raises a very important point. As a
Member of Parliament who proudly represents a very large
Jewish community, I know the challenges of
antisemitism, and that has been at the front of my
mind in framing this legislation. It is a challenging area, this
point about anonymity. Of course, if there is criminal conduct that
the police and law enforcement agencies are investigating, they
have ways of dealing with that anonymity in order to bring criminal
cases. The reluctance I have had, and the Government have had, to
introduce provision across the board is about how we lift the veil
of anonymity while at the same time protecting some very vulnerable
people who rely on it. But of course we will continue to keep it
under review.
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