Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of the research by Coadec entitled How the Online Safety Bill could change liability rules, and what this means, published in February 2022, and its findings on the comparative average cost of compliance with the Online Safety Bill for large and small businesses.

Online intermediaries are protected from liability for illegal content they host, unless it is flagged and not removed. These protections support digital innovation in the UK.

Recognising that technology is fundamental to how companies protect users, the Online Safety Bill will empower Ofcom to be able to require technology companies to use automated technology that identifies and tackles illegal content and protects children.

The regulatory framework set out in the Online Safety Bill is designed to ensure that regulatory expectations on services are reasonable and proportionate to the severity of the potential harm posed and the resources available to the service.