Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that content relating to women’s health is not inappropriately restricted or shadow-banned on social media platforms; and whether her Department has issued to platforms on safeguarding access to educational health information.

The Online Safety Act does not set out to prevent adults from seeking out legal content, nor does it decide what legal content companies should or should not allow on their platforms. Platforms will not be able to arbitrarily remove content, and users will have access to effective complaints procedures when content is unduly taken down. Ofcom, the independent regulator, is working to ensure services understand how to comply with the new requirements.