Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps he is taking to help tackle health misinformation due to levels of media literacy.

The government understands the importance of building audience resilience to mis- and disinformation, noting that improved media literacy is essential for helping people to recognise this content. The Online Safety Act updates Ofcom’s statutory duty to promote media literacy by adding targeted duties to develop internet users’ understanding of the nature and impact of mis- and disinformation.

The Act also requires platforms to tackle health mis- and disinformation that is illegal or harmful to children. Additionally, where it is prohibited in Category 1 platforms’ terms of service, they must remove it and enforce this consistently.