Under embargo until 00.01am Thursday 29 July
2021
A Joint Committee of Parliament, set up to
scrutinise the Online Safety Bill, has been launched today by
asking the public for their views on the draft legislation.
The Bill, published by the government
in draft form in May 2021, is designed to establish a new
regulatory framework to tackle harmful content
online.
The Committee will be chaired by , the former chair of House of Commons DCMS Select
Committee, whose seminal inquiry on Disinformation and ‘fake
news’ recommended tougher action on online hate speech and
greater regulation of social media companies, including
Facebook.
The Committee, who will report its findings to
the Government before 10 December 2021, is asking the public for
their views on whether the draft law will achieve its aim of
making the UK ‘the safest place to be online.’ The Committee are
specifically seeking views on how the Bill compares to online
safety legislation in other countries, and whether it represents
a threat to freedom of expression. Anyone with views on the Bill
can submit them via the
Committee’s website.
, Chair of the Joint Committee on the Online Safety
Bill, said: “The Online Safety Bill is about finally
putting a legal framework around hate speech and harmful content,
and ultimately holding the tech giants to account for the role
their technology plays in promoting it.
“The next step in this process is the detailed
scrutiny of the draft Bill. This is a once in a generation piece
of legislation that will update our laws for the digital
age.
“We now have a super committee of MPs and
peers, highly experienced in this area who will work together to
go through this Bill line by line to make sure it’s fit for
purpose. Freedom of speech is at the heart of our democracy, but
so is fighting against movements that seeks to harm and
dehumanise people. In the social media age we have not yet got
that balance right, and now is the time to fix
it.”
The members of the Committee have a vast range
of experience in this policy area, and are as
follows:
From the House of
Commons:
-
(Chair) (Con) former Chair of the House of
Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, and
current Chair of the APPGs for Media Freedom and Media
Literacy
-
(Lab) current member House of Commons Work and
Pensions Committee
-
(Lab) current Chair of the House of Commons
Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Select Committee,
Co-chair, APPG Parliamentary Information, Communications and
Technology Forum, Chair of the APPG on Technology and National
Security and Chair of the APPG on Data
Poverty
-
(SNP) Shadow SNP Spokesperson for DCMS, current
member House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
Select Committee
-
(Con) current member Joint Committee on Human
Rights and House of Commons Select Committee on Health and
Social Care, Chair of the APPG on Digital Health and the APPG
on Digital IDs
-
(Con)
current member House of Commons Procedure Committee, PPS for
Department for International Trade and Women and
Equalities
From the House of
Lords:
-
(Lab) current member House of Lords
Communications and Digital Committee
-
(Con) current member House of Lords Democracy and Digital
Technologies Committee
-
(Lib
Dem) Liberal Democrat Lords Spokesperson for
Digital
-
(Cross
bench) current member of the House of Lords Democracy and
Digital Technologies Committee
-
(Lab) current member House of Lords
Democracy and Digital Technologies
Committee
-
(Con) Chair of the House of Lords Communications and Digital
Committee
