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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent steps his Department has taken to tackle the spread of disinformation and fake news online.

Disinformation is one of the harms in scope of the new regulatory framework for online safety, announced in the Online Harms White Paper. Under this framework, companies will be expected to take proactive but proportionate measures to limit the spread of disinformation on their platforms and help their users understand the information they are receiving.

The White Paper also sets out our plans to develop an Online Media Literacy Strategy to empower users to manage their online safety and make informed choices about online content. We are currently consulting on the measures proposed in the White Paper, and will provide more detail on our approach to tackling disinformation in the Government response to that consultation, which we intend to publish by the end of the year.

We are also considering a wide range of other initiatives to tackle the spread of disinformation and build our population’s resilience. This includes further research to understand the scale, scope and impact of disinformation, as well as continuing work with the tech sector to develop technological responses and strengthen the online environment.