Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will require social media platforms to remove content which is currently unlawful in Scotland under the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021, but is not deemed unlawful in the rest of the United Kingdom.

The Online Safety Act 2023 requires providers to tackle illegal content. The Act defines relevant offences for the purposes of these duties. Unless designated as a priority offence, an offence created by an Act of the Scottish Parliament is not a relevant offence and the Online Safety Act does not require providers to take any action. Currently, no offences under the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 are priority offences. However, the list of priority offences includes hate crime and public order offences and providers must take action regardless of where a user is based in the UK.