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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent discussions he has had with his Finnish counterpart on media literacy and tackling disinformation.

Ministers have had no recent discussions with their Finnish counterpart about media literacy and disinformation. However officials have discussed these issues bilaterally with Finland on a number of occasions, most recently on 8 May, as well as in multilateral fora. The UK is working closely with like-minded international partners, including EU Member States, to develop coordinated responses to disinformation and limit its harmful impact on our societies.

The Government believes that media literacy and ensuring citizens can critically appraise information online is key to long-term success in building resilience to disinformation and other online harms. As announced in the Online Harms White Paper, the Government will develop a new online media literacy strategy. This strategy will be developed in broad consultation with a wide range of stakeholders, and will ensure a coordinated and strategic approach to online media literacy education and awareness for children, young people and adults.

We are aware that a number of European partners, including Finland, have developed media literacy strategies to tackle disinformation. The UK will continue to engage with these partners to share best practices and ensure that our response to disinformation is as effective as possible.