Gosport MP Caroline Dinenage says planned legislation around social media 'could be better'

The online safety bill is currently making its way through parliament, with a goal of reaching royal assent before the end of the ongoing parliamentary session.

Gosport MP Caroline Dinenage, who was previously minister for digital and culture, is pushing for the bill to mandate social media companies to remove ‘legal but harmful’ content.

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The bill was recently revised to remove this wording.

She said: ‘This is still a ground breaking piece of legislation, which will deliver the aim of making this one of the safest countries in the world to be online. The protections for children and determination to tackle illegal content are still paramount.

‘I do have concerns about the removal of ‘legal but harmful’. If we are serious about really tackling some of the harms of the online world we need to protect vulnerable adults from the algorithms which effectively create an echo chamber, where dangerous viewpoints and paranoias are normalised and people signposted to more dangerous and explicit content.

‘It’s a great piece of legislation, but it could be better.’

If the bill does not reach royal assent before the end of this parliamentary session next spring, it will time out.

Caroline previously served as the minister responsible for earlier drafts of this legislation. Now, from the Conservative backbenches, she has repeatedly lobbied for robust management of harmful content on online platforms.