Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps his Department is taking to prevent the new false communication offence in the Online Safety Act 2023 from stifling freedom of speech.

The false communications offence within the Online Safety Act captures communications where the individual knows the information to be false but sends it intending to cause harm to a likely audience, without reasonable excuse.

Protecting freedom of expression is important to this government, and is taken into account throughout the Online Safety Act. For example, the Act requires in-scope services to give particular regard to protecting users’ freedom of expression and privacy rights when implementing safety measures.