Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to protect freedom of expression online.

Freedom of expression and the media are essential qualities of any functioning democracy, and the government is committed to maintaining a free and open internet, in line with our democratic values.

We recently published draft Online Safety legislation which will tackle harmful content while protecting users’ rights online. In-scope companies will have a legal obligation to consider and implement safeguards for freedom of expression when fulfilling their duties, for which they can be held to account. The largest social media platforms will no longer be able to arbitrarily remove harmful content. They will need to be clear what content is acceptable on their services and enforce these rules consistently. They will also need to put in place additional protections for democratic and journalistic content. Users will have access to effective mechanisms to appeal content that is removed without good reason.

The government is also taking steps to boost competition in digital markets through a new pro-competition regime. The new regime will aim to promote fair trading, open choices, trust and transparency to allow swift action to pre-empt competition concerns in fast-moving markets. This has the potential to support greater choice and plurality in digital services, for example through boosting a greater diversity of platforms for speech online.