Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to prevent violent images of assault being (a) uploaded, and (b) distributed on online sites.

The Home Office is committed to ensuring action is taken against illegal content online that puts people at risk of serious violence. We are clear that internet companies must go further and faster to tackle this content.

Under the Online Safety Bill, technology companies will be held to account for tackling illegal content posted on their platforms. We recognise that social media is used in incitement to and threats of violence, which is why this is listed as a priority offence in the Bill. Platforms will have to take proactive steps to search for, remove and limit people’s exposure to this content and criminal behaviour. They will need to establish systems and processes to identify, assess and address these offences.

This might mean investing more resource for content moderation or limiting algorithmic promotion of content.

The requirements set out in the Online safety Bill will lead to less illegal content online and when it does appear it will be removed quicker.