Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made on the role of online advertising in financing criminal content online, and whether they have proposals to deal with the issue.

The Government continually assesses the impact of online services’ activities on UK citizens.

The Online Safety Act establishes a new regulatory regime for online services including platforms and search engines. It gives these services duties to tackle illegal content and protect their users from harm. Ofcom is the regulator for this regime. It has strong enforcement powers if platforms fail to comply. These powers include business disruption measures with court approval. Through these powers, third-party service providers can be required to withdraw services from a non-compliant platform.