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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to ensure that providers of online platforms are legally obliged to prioritise the prevention and investigation of abuse against women occurring on their platforms.

Under the draft Online Safety Bill, companies in scope will need to protect users, including women, from illegal abuse. Services will need to have effective systems in place to minimise and remove illegal content.

Major platforms will also need to address legal but harmful content for adults. Priority categories of legal but harmful content for adults will be set out in secondary legislation and these are likely to include some forms of online abuse.

Ofcom will have a suite of enforcement powers available to use against companies who fail their duties. These powers include fines for companies of up to £18 million or 10% of qualifying annual global turnover, and business disruption measures.

The draft Bill has been subject to pre-legislative scrutiny by a Joint Committee. The Joint Committee reported with their recommendations on 14 December. We are considering the Committee’s recommendations and are committed to introducing the Bill as soon as possible after that.