Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to promote greater user content viewing control on social media platforms for adult consumers.

Government recognises that algorithms can expose users to harmful content. All users, particularly vulnerable users, should feel supported to make choices about what they see online.

As set out in the Protecting What Matters strategy, we are exploring how to give adults greater control over their algorithms to reduce their exposure to harmful content. This builds on provisions in the Online Safety Act requiring Category 1 services to give users more choice over the content they consume through ‘user empowerment’ tools in 2027.

Alongside this, we are developing a Researcher Access to Data framework to improve transparency and scrutiny of the role of algorithms.