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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to hold (a) Instagram and (b) other social media platforms to account for (a) racist and (b) other hateful content.

Online abuse of any kind is unacceptable. Racist abuse and other hateful content has no place in an open and tolerant society.

We are taking groundbreaking steps to hold companies accountable. Under new online safety laws, all companies in scope of the framework will need to take swift and effective action against criminal online abuse - including abuse which takes place anonymously. Major platforms will also need to address legal but harmful content for adults. Priority categories of legal but harmful content for adults will be set out in secondary legislation and these are likely to include some forms of online abuse.

Users will also be better able to report abuse, and should expect to receive an appropriate response from the platform. This might include the removal of harmful content, sanctions against offending users, or changing processes and policies to better protect users. If a company fails in these duties, it could face an investigation and enforcement action from the regulator, Ofcom, including large fines.

The draft Online Safety Bill, which will give effect to the regulatory framework, has now been published for pre-legislative scrutiny. It is for Parliament to determine how and when the Bill will be scrutinised, which the government hopes will be soon.