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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether he plans to take steps to obtain an independent assessment of the performance of technology companies in tackling the spread of disinformation on covid-19.

The Government has seen positive steps taken by social media platforms to curtail the spread of harmful and misleading narratives related to Covid-19. Major platforms have updated their terms of service and made technical changes to their products in order to reduce the impact of harmful misinformation. This includes measures to ensure users see accurate information on Covid-19, including links to NHS and other authoritative sources.

The Government continues to work closely with platforms to help them identify and take action to remove dangerous, incorrect claims about the virus, and suspend the accounts of people who wilfully post and share it. While there has been positive engagement so far, we want the platforms to continue to take further steps to address misinformation and disinformation relating to Covid-19 on their systems.