Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what recent assessment her Department has made of the role of social media companies in facilitating online fraud and scams.

Online platforms, including social media, are being exploited by criminals to commit crime. Data from the banking and financial services sector suggests 53% of authorised push payment (APP) fraud cases in 2023 involved social media, messaging and call platforms, 13% auction, purchase and listing platforms, and 12% telecommunications platforms.

The Online Safety Act lists fraud as a priority offence. This means that in-scope social media providers must prevent and minimise fraudulent content from appearing on their services and swiftly remove it if it does. Platforms must also manage the risk their service being used by criminals to commit fraud or other financial crimes.