Social Media: Hate Crime

(asked on 18th June 2025) - View Source

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, if he will take (a) regulatory and (b) legislative steps to hold platforms accountable for monetising content which (i) does not meet internal policies on hate speech, (ii) promotes misogyny and (iii) promotes gender-based hate.


Answered by
Feryal Clark Portrait
Feryal Clark
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
This question was answered on 26th June 2025

The Online Safety Act gives online platforms new duties to tackle illegal user-generated content on their services. This includes duties for illegal content that stirs up hatred. Under these duties, providers need to remove this content. It cannot then be monetised. Categorised services also need to have systems and processes in place to enforce their terms of service about content that is prohibited on their service, including hate speech and misogyny. The regulation is overseen by Ofcom and it has strong powers to enforce compliance.

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