Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what powers under the Online Safety Act 2023 she has used to address the financial incentives that reward harmful online content, and whether the Government plans to strengthen those powers.

Under the Online Safety Act, platforms must tackle hateful online content where it is illegal or harmful to children. They must take steps to ensure their algorithms do not target users with this content. Under new duties to be introduced next year, the largest user-to-user platforms will be required to set out in Terms of Service content prohibited on their services, then apply these Terms consistently.

In Protecting What Matters, the government’s social cohesion strategy, DSIT and DCMS committed to developing options for reducing the inadvertent monetisation of harmful online content. We have engaged with platforms, the ad industry, and civil society on this issue.