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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions she has had with video-sharing platforms on the use of recommendation algorithms to promote content from public service broadcasters.

The Media Green Paper, Watch this Space, sets out how we will ensure Public Service Media content is prominent where audiences are watching TV, including on third party platforms. The Government's preference remains for industry-led, voluntary agreements to achieve increased prominence in a sustainable and robust way that benefits all parties.

The Department has held a series of roundtables with the public service media providers and video sharing platforms to encourage industry led voluntary partnerships ensuring public service media content is made prominent and on fair terms. The Green Paper sets out that prominence should be outcomes-based, giving platforms the flexibility to deliver the objectives in a way that works for their platform, whether through recommendation algorithms or other means.

With regards to freedom of speech, at present social media companies, rather than the public, have the control over what content is made visible to users - we want to ensure that trustworthy news is not crowded out. There is no intention to restrict or censor content.

We are currently consulting on the proposals in the Green Paper, and stakeholder input including from independent content creators, will directly inform the Government’s next steps.