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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the debate which took place at the Council of Europe on 23 June 2022 entitled The control of online communication: a threat to media pluralism, freedom of information and human dignity.

The Government is committed to being one of the safest countries to be online and we recognise the wider international debates taking place to address online safety. This includes the work of the Council of Europe, in particular the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, noting that recommendations will go to the Committee of Ministers in due course for appropriate review.

The UK continues efforts to tackle online harm through our Online Safety Bill, and to do so in a way that defends freedom of expression and pluralism online, protecting people’s rights to participate in society and engage in robust debate online. We remain committed to a pluralistic media landscape, where people can access information from a range of sources in order to form their opinions.