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Online Harms Update
Newsletter 35: 21 April 2022
Welcome to the latest Carnegie UK Online Harms update where we bring together the latest news, research and developments relating to Online Harms policy in the UK and further afield to help campaigners, advocates and policy folk stay connected.

This week, the Online Safety Bill passed its Second Reading, albeit after a much shorter than scheduled debate. Committee stage of the Bill will begin once the new session of Parliament has begun.

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What’s been happening?
The road to regulation: The second reading of the Online Safety Bill
  • The Government set out its position ahead of Second Reading here and, focusing on the protection of children, in a joint op-ed from the Secretary of State and the Children’s Commissioner. The full transcript of the Second Reading debate can be found here. Overall the Government is likely to be pleased with the debate, which demonstrated cross-party consensus on the need for legislation; and remarkably, on a day of intense partisan activity, the House did not divide. This broad consensus may be demonstrating the benefits of Pre-Legislative Scrutiny.
  • The debate ran for just over two hours – a slot much reduced due to delays caused by the PM’s statement to the Commons earlier that day – and many MPs with an interest were consequently not able to speak. Issues raised by those who did participate included: the need for a more systemic approach; lack of clear definitions and the amount of detail that will be left to secondary legislation; risks that the categorisation of companies will allow harms on smaller platforms to flourish; the extent that the Secretary of State’s powers will impact on Ofcom’s independence; and gaps in the Bill, including mis/disinformation, protections for those suffering from epilepsy, action on cross-platform harms, particularly to children, and risks from emerging technologies, including the metaverse.
  • Some speakers raised concerns about the impact of the Bill on free speech – something which the Secretary of State, in her opening statement, was keen to emphasise would be better protected under the legislation than currently – and on the protections for journalism content, but neither of these issues proved significant enough to force a division on the Bill. (Notably, Steve Baker MP co-authored an op-ed on the subject on the day of Second Reading but didn’t speak in the debate.)
  • For further reading on some of the issues raised in the debate, you can refer back to Second Reading briefings from charities and campaign groups, including from: a coalition of children’s charities (on why the Bill is needed) and the NSPCC (whose concerns about “breadcrumbing” were shared by many MPs); Barnardo’s (delays to introduction of protections for children from porn); IWF (CSEA); Clean Up the Internet (anonymity and user verification); Full Fact (mis/disinformation and media literacy); and Glitch (the ongoing concerns about the lack of specific protections for women and girls, also raised by the End Violence Against Women and Girls coalition). The House of Commons Library also produced a briefing paper and an accompanying reading list ahead of the debate.
  • The programme motions, which included a deadline of 30 June for Committee stage, and carry-over motion, to enable the Bill to continue its passage in the next session, were all agreed.
  • In a tweet before Second Reading, Nikki De Costa (former Director of Legislative Affairs at No 10) forecast that the Bill “... won’t get to Royal Assent before Feb ‘23. In cttee till end June, report and 3R likely to be together, w/c 8 July. Would not expect Lords 2R till Sept. Will run till at least Feb. Then ping-pong.” Meanwhile, this analysis from Conservative Home editor Paul Goodman looks at some of the Parliamentary challenges ahead, particularly for a Bill that is likely to be heavily amended.
Online Safety Bill: General commentary and campaigns
  • The NSPCC has published its analysis of the Online Safety Bill with a series of recommendations to make it stronger in protecting children; in a strongly worded open letter to the largest pornography sites in the UK, a coalition of charities and child safety experts has said the harm being done to children was so severe that the issue could not wait to be addressed as part of the Online Safety Bill; and another coalition of charities, campaigning to #KeepKidsOffPorn, has sent a letter to the Prime Minister calling for amendments to the Bill to ensure the law's timeliness, effectiveness and workability.
  • Safer Schools have produced a short rundown on what the Bill is and what it will do to protect children, alongside a one page graphic; and BBC Science focus have also published an overview.
  • Campaigners claim that a loophole in online safety laws ‘will let incels spread extremist views’, an issue raised by Plymouth MP Luke Pollard in the Second Reading debate; campaigners are also warning that violence against sex workers will surge under the new legislation; and Hacked Off claims Russia Today will benefit from the journalism exemptions in the Bill.
  • James Thomson, chairman of the City of London Corporation’s police authority board, said the Online Safety Bill would have a significant impact on tackling the growing number of scams targeting people on their mobile phones, computers and other devices. Meanwhile, Rocio Concha from Which? has written for Politics Home on the need to further strengthen the Bill to protect users from fraud and scams.
  • A new IET report on “Safeguarding the Metaverse” identifies a number of recommendations for policymakers, including better future-proofing the Online Safety Bill and putting more onus on the design of virtual spaces rather than users reporting problems.
  • Mishcon de Reya LLP have produced a video recording of their recent Online Safety Bill event which featured panellists Professor Lorna Woods, Dame Margaret Hodge MP, Mark Bunting, Director of Online Safety Policy at Ofcom; and Sanjay Bhandari, Chair of Kick It Out. Mishcon de Reya lawyer Harry Eccles-Williams also features on the Powerscourt Friday Fix Short podcast. Other law firms’ responses have included: analysis from BCLP and Morrison & Foerster; and Farrer & Co’s The Price of Fame - The Online Safety Bill and Big Tech.
Road to regulation: Other developments
  • For a preview of related activity in the next Parliamentary session, Queen’s Speech documentation includes details on legislation for: Digital markets reform, Bill of Rights (Human Rights), Modern Slavery, Counter-terrorism strategy: ‘Protect duty’ and an Economic Crime Bill.
  • Other recent activity by Parliamentarians on this topic has included: Damien Collins’ articles on the impact on content moderators of their work (co-written with Sean Casten and Phumzile van Damme); and on online competition laws. Conservative's Dr Luke Evans MP has called for every social media company to appoint an ‘algorithm tsar’, to improve transparency. Lord Allan, previously of Facebook and now a Lib Dem peer, is publishing a series of blogs on the Online Safety Bill, available here
  • Further to the publication of its plan of work 2022/3, Ofcom’s preparations to take on its new online safety role continue, with the launch of a pilot for an online harms survey; publication of research into misinformation; and research on online market failures and harms. The regulator has also launched a new podcast series, “Life Online from Ofcom”, which will explore how the Online Safety Bill impacts the UK public; the first episode focused on “Tackling Misinformation”.
Systems, design and governance
Children and young people
Misinformation and disinformation
Societal harms
  • Harms to democracy: President Obama recently reflected on the role that system and processes play in amplifying harm in an interview with Jeffrey Goldberg at The Atlantic on the future of democracy: “what you now have is these product designs where, in a non-transparent way that we don’t have much insight into, a series of editorial choices are essentially being made that undermine our democracy and oftentimes, when combined with any kind of ethno-nationalism or misogyny or racism, can be fatal. And that is the media ecosystem that we now are occupying. And the good news is I actually think that at every juncture, every time we’ve gotten new media, we’ve had this kind of churn, and then we’ve come up with rules to try to figure out: How do we fix it?” 
  • A global coalition of civil society organisations is calling for platforms to do more to enable free-flow of information in crisis zones; their statement claims “It has become increasingly clear that platforms have followed the same playbook in Ukraine as they have elsewhere: surface-level or extractive relationships with civil society; insufficient support for local language and lack of understanding of context; and responsiveness to media pressure, not civil society pressure or human rights concerns.”
Other policy developments
European and international developments
Get involved
Campaigns
  • Linked to their recent report (see above), CCDH is calling on further signatories to their open letter to the major platforms to demand action on Hidden Hate.
Consultations and inquiries
  • Your Views Matter” – an ICO online survey – runs until 1 May. 
  • BEIS consultation on Enabling a National Cyber-Physical Infrastructure to catalyse innovation – deadline 11 May.
  • DCMS consultation on online advertising – deadline 1 June.
  • Department of Health and Social Care has launched a call for evidence for its new 10-year plan to improve mental health – deadline 5 July.
LAST CHANCE
  • The House of Lords Committee on the Fraud Act 2006 and Digital Fraud call for evidencedeadline 22 April
Westminster watch: the week/fortnight ahead
  • 21 April: Adjournment debate on digital persecution
  • 25 April: The House of Lords returns from recess.
  • 25 April: Elections Bill Third reading
  • 28 April: House of Lords Fraud Committee evidence session
  • 10 May: Queen’s Speech
For updates on all of Carnegie UK’s projects and activities click HERE to view our website.
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