Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether the Government plans to introduce legislation to limit the creation of echo chambers and the use of harmful algorithms that promote hate for financial gain.

Under the Online Safety Act, platforms must tackle illegal content, including terrorist content and religious or race-based hatred. They must protect children from additional forms of legal content, including hate or abuse.

Services must ensure their algorithms do not promote this content, and Ofcom has robust enforcement powers to ensure this. Government has met with Ofcom to encourage their enforcement on this issue.

In response to the Social media, misinformation and harmful algorithms report by the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee, government committed to ensuring individuals have a say over the content they are presented by algorithms. DSIT committed further to exploring options requiring platforms to provide users with greater control over their algorithms in Protecting What Matters, the government’s plan to improve social cohesion.