Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of social media content moderation practices, including shadow banning, on the visibility of women’s health information online; and what steps she is taking alongside the Department for Health and Social Care to ensure that such practices do not restrict access to legitimate health information while maintaining protections against harmful content.

The Online Safety Act does not prevent adults or children from accessing legal content about women’s health. Safeguards for freedom of expression have been built in throughout the framework of the Act, which places duties on platforms to protect users’ rights to freedom of expression when introducing safety measures.

The largest services regulated by the Act will have additional duties meaning they cannot arbitrarily remove content, and they will need to be clear what legal content is acceptable on their services and enforce the rules consistently for their adult users. Users will have access to effective complaints procedures to appeal when content is unduly taken down.