Hate Speech Online
(Manchester, Gorton) (Lab)
1. What steps her Department is taking to tackle hate speech
online.(901737)
The Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
()
We will lead the world in this area, and we will bring back the
Online Safety Bill imminently, ensuring that social media
platforms finally prioritise protecting children, remove
abhorrent illegal content quickly—including hate crimes—and keep
their promises to their own users.
Online hate speech affects all and aims to sow division, yet the
Government are making painfully slow progress in making online
spaces less toxic. Home Office figures reveal a sharp increase in
far-right activity, with Muslim and Jewish communities facing the
largest number of hate crimes in the UK year after year. Along
with other parliamentary colleagues, I suffer online abuse on a
regular basis. What steps will the Minister take to tackle
Islamophobia and antisemitism online?
Crimes such as those that the hon. Member has mentioned,
including hate crimes, are not acceptable on any platform. As I
have said, we will bring back the Online Safety Bill imminently.
I cannot announce House business here today, but I can assure all
Members that the Bill will be coming back very shortly. I share
his concerns, as I am sure do all Members.
Mr Speaker
I call the Chair of the Select Committee, .
(Solihull) (Con)
Let me first welcome the Secretary of State to her place, and
welcome, too, the refreshing degree of engagement with the Select
Committee that is now under way. I also welcome her assurance
that she will be strengthening the Online Safety Bill’s
protections for children, but there has been speculation,
following previous comments, that she will be reviewing the
duties of care for adults relating to so-called “legal but
harmful content”. Can she clarify what changes she is minded to
make in relation to such content?
We will be coming back to the House with this in due course, and
the Bill will be coming back imminently. This is my key
priority—I cannot stress that enough. Protecting children should
be the fundamental responsibility of this House, and we will
strengthen the provisions for children. I have given that
assurance directly to Ian Russell, and I give it again now in the
House. We are, however, rebalancing elements for adults’ freedom
of speech, while also holding social media companies to account
so that they cannot treat different races and religions
differently, contrary to their own terms and conditions.
Fundamentally, the Bill must be about ensuring that we are
protecting children, and we will be bringing it back to the House
as soon as possible.
Mr Speaker
I call the shadow Minister, .
(Pontypridd) (Lab)
Last weekend there was yet another case of vile online racist
abuse being hurled at a professional footballer, on this occasion
the Brentford striker Ivan Toney. Ironically, tomorrow we will
all come together to recognise Show Racism the Red Card day. If
the Government are at all serious about keeping people safe
online, it is vital for those at the top of these
multimillion-pound social media companies to be held personally
accountable. The Online Safety Bill is our opportunity to do
better. Can the Minister therefore tell us exactly why the
Government have failed to introduce personal criminal liability
measures for senior leaders who have fallen short on their
statutory duty to protect us online?
I think it is about time the Opposition remembered that it is
this Government who are introducing the Online Safety Bill. It is
this Government who committed themselves to it in our manifesto.
As I have already told Opposition Members, we will bring it back
imminently. I am sure you agree, Mr Speaker, that it would not be
proper for me to announce House business here today, but I can
assure the hon. Member that this is my top priority. We will be
coming back with the Bill shortly. I mean what I say, and I will
do what I say.
Mr Speaker
I now call the Scottish National party spokesperson, .
(Ochil and South Perthshire)
(SNP)
I welcome the right hon. Lady—my fifth Culture Secretary—to her
place. I agree with my friend the hon. Member for Solihull
() that there is a more
constructive atmosphere on the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
Committee, on which I sit.
Last night, I was honoured to be present at the PinkNews awards,
where I spoke up for trans rights with colleagues across party,
including Conservatives. There has been an explosion of hate
speech online. Women are targeted disproportionately and trans
women are targeted especially. Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre had
to lock its door after barrages of violent online threats, and
these are dangerous times. An atmosphere of hate has been fanned
by too many newspapers and, sadly, politicians.
Does the Secretary of State agree that the now Prime Minister was
wrong to weaponise anti-trans rhetoric during the Tory leadership
campaign, as she did in attacking the now Leader of the
House?
I do not think that anybody disputes the fact that hate speech
and hate crime should have no place in our society, but freedom
of speech, of course, is the bedrock from which all freedoms
stem. I personally believe that every member of this House has a
duty to protect free speech as well as protecting our citizens
from illegal harms.
