Culture Secretary rejects claims online safety bill would fail to halt Holocaust denial

Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan has rejected claims that the government’s new online safety legislation will allow Holocaust denial to continue on the internet.

Speaking at the conclusion of a lengthy Commons debate on proposed changes to the Online Safety Bill, Donelan repeated her claim the government have “injected a triple shield that will ensure that antisemitism does not remain on these platforms.”

Labour’s Sarah Jones had praised the work done around tackling issues around anti-Jewish racism by the Antisemitism Policy Trust.

But the shadow minister then asked Donelan if she agreed that by removing the clauses around so-called legal but harmful content “we are allowing Holocaust denial that we all abhor to continue online?”

Responding, the Secretary of State said:”I have worked very closely with a range of groups backing the causes in relation to cracking down on antisemitism, including the Board of Deputies and the Antisemitism Policy Trust .

“They have said that it is vital that we progress this further.

“We have adopted their clause in relation to breach notifications, to increase transparency, and we have injected a triple shield that will ensure that antisemitism does not remain on these platforms.”

On concerns over the dropping of the legal but harmful clause, as demanded by free speech campaigners, Donelan added:”If a platform allowed legal but harmful material, users would therefore face a binary choice between not using the platform at all or facing abuse and harm that they did not want to see.

We, however, have added a third shield that transfers power away from silicon valley algorithms to ordinary people. Our new triple shield mechanism puts accountability, transparency and choice at the heart of the way we interact with each other online. If it is illegal, it has to go.

“If it violates a company’s terms and conditions, it has to go. Under the third and final layer of the triple shield, platforms must offer users tools to allow them to choose what kind of content they want to see and engage with.”

But Labour shadow culture secretary Lucy Powell brought up the issue “that the algorithms and the power of platforms to push people towards content that, although on its own may not be illegal, cumulatively causes significant harm.”

She added:” Replacing the prevention of harm with an emphasis on free speech lets the platforms off the hook, and the absence of duties to prevent harm and dangerous outcomes will allow them to focus on weak user controls.”

Earlier Labour’s Christian Wakeford and Alex Davies-Jones had raised concerns that rapper Kayne West’s “Hitler worship” would could to circulate over the internet as a result of the changes to online safety proposals.

At the end of Monday’s debate, there was a majority for the government’s wish for problematic clauses to go back to committee stage for further scrutiny.

Powell accepted that the enormous number of amendments tabled over the past week on the bill should now be scrutinised, but expressed concern that time was limited in ensuring the bill got through parliament in the aloted time left.