Thank you for contacting me about the Online Safety Bill and private communications.
The Online Safety Bill will make the UK the safest place in the world to be online. The Bill will ensure that tech companies take more responsibility for the safety of their users, particularly children.
The Bill will introduce several new offences, such as cyberflashing, intimate image abuse, encouragement of self-harm, false communications and threatening communications.
It is important that the Bill defends freedom of expression. The Government has therefore quite rightly removed the 'legal but harmful' provisions, which could have inadvertently stifled free speech, and replaced them with new duties which strengthen the requirements for major platforms to adhere to their terms and conditions about content moderation. Platforms will be required to clearly articulate in their terms of service what they are doing to enforce age requirements on their sites, such as the use of age verification technology.
As part of the new duties to protect adults, in scope companies will need to take preventative measures to tackle illegal content or activity. Furthermore, platforms will be required to have appropriate systems and processes in place to remove content that is banned by their terms and conditions. These duties will mean that users can make informed decisions on which sites they choose to use, and know what they can expect online. In addition, platforms will need to give users who would like to minimise their engagement with particular categories of content tools to reduce the likelihood that they will see that content, such as suicide content, content promoting self-harm or eating disorders, or content that is abusive or incites hate.
Ofcom will also be given the power to make platforms publish details of any enforcement notices they receive from the regulator for breaching their safety duties under the Bill.
I note your specific concerns about private messages and encryption. The UK supports the responsible use of strong encryption, as the safety and security of digital technologies is essential. However, if end-to-end encryption is implemented in a way which intentionally blinds tech companies to content on their platforms it can have a disastrous impact on public safety.
All parts of regulated platforms, including instant messaging services and closed social media groups, are in scope of the Online Safety Bill. Companies cannot use encryption as an excuse to avoid protecting their users, particularly children.
Therefore, I am pleased that the Online Safety Bill will ensure that the duty of care towards users will still apply to companies that choose to use end-to-end encryption.
I will continue to closely follow the progress of the Bill as it passes through Parliament.