David Pinto-Duschinsky

The Online Safety Act (OSA) establishes Ofcom as the UK online safety regulator. The OSA gives online platforms new duties where there are risks of their services being used to carry out certain priority offences, including posting illegal antisemitic content which stirs up hatred.

Ofcom will set out steps in codes of practice that different platforms can take to fulfil these duties. Ofcom must consult on proposed steps. For these consultations, it publishes evidence about in-scope harms. For example, in November 2023, it published research into these matters for its consultation on its OSA ‘illegal content duties’ proposals.

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/online-safety/illegal-and-harmful-content/protecting-people-from-illegal-content-online

The Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology will make Regulations pertaining to Schedule 11 of the Online Safety Act as soon as reasonably practicable.

Under the Act, all user-to-user services – including online forums - will be required to proactively tackle illegal hate speech, such as illegal antisemitic abuse. If such a service is likely to be accessed by children, they will also be required to protect children from encountering specific types of legal but harmful content. This includes legal content which is abusive or incites hate on the basis of race or religion.

We have ensured that the wording used to explain how to create a UVKI account and get access to an eVisa is simple and can be easily translated using various free online services. In consultation with stakeholders, we are also considering providing information about the transition to eVisas in other languages.

We are also working closely with our partner agency in delivering engagement activity with community groups, as they will be producing guidance materials translated into key languages.

We will continue to work with British Embassy communications teams at Post to explore the need for translations in specific regions. Where appropriate, we can provide editable social media assets that can be translated to support customer awareness of the changes to the immigration system in local languages.

We have engaged with, among others, the education sector, employers, local authorities and voluntary sector organisations to reach those affected by the transition to eVisas, including vulnerable and hard-to-reach groups. Many thousands of people have attended our calls.

People can nominate a ‘helper’ and give them limited access to their account, so that they can assist with creating a UKVI account, completing details to access an eVisa, and with any immigration application.

Where a person is unable to manage their own affairs due to, for example, age or disability, a ‘proxy’, who is authorised to act on their behalf, can create and manage the account on their behalf.