Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that misogyny and the language of gender-based violence is regulated and removed from online platforms.
The Online Safety Act requires all services in scope of the regime to proactively tackle and prevent users from being exposed to the most harmful illegal content, much of which disproportionately affects women and girls. Illegal content includes harassment, stalking, and controlling or coercive behaviour. Under the Act, services over the designated threshold will also need to remove certain types of legal content, such as content that is abusive on the basis of sex or gender, where it is prohibited in their terms of service. Companies will need to have effective, accessible mechanisms in place for users to be able to report abuse and receive an appropriate response from the platform.