Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Michelle Donelan and Afzal Khan

Thursday 20th October 2022 Commons Chamber

[Afzal Khan (Manchester, Gorton) (Lab)]

1. What steps her Department is taking to tackle hate speech online.

[The Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (Michelle Donelan)]

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.

[Afzal Khan]

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?