The UK’s Online Safety Bill (1) has, at long last, completed its tortuous passage through Parliament. It now awaits Royal Assent before becoming law, in all likelihood before the end of the year. The Bill’s essential provisions on the prevention of online harms and on the duties imposed on social media platforms are well document, as are the ethical and civil liberty concerns raised by the future application of the legislation – not least with regards to threats to end-to-end encryption (2).
Of particular interest to MILA are the less-reported aspects of the Bill related to media literacy. Here, steps have clearly been taken in the right direction. However, during the Bill’s parliamentary journey, several amendments from the House of Lords, designed to strengthen the promotion of media literacy and media literacy education, were rejected, arguably reducing the potency of the legislation.
As things stand, the Bill contains a number of provisions that relate specifically to media literacy. In this area, a key component of the Bill is a requirement for Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator, to publish a media literacy strategy every three years. This strategy must set out how Ofcom will work to promote media literacy among the public, and should include a media literacy statement explaining what Ofcom has achieved in this area over each year. Ofcom is also required to commission or encourage educational initiatives designed to improve the media literacy of members of the public – for instance, through developing educational resources, funding relevant research and working with schools and other organizations to deliver media literacy education programmes.
The Bill also includes a number of other media literacy provisions relating particularly to online platforms, as part of their duty of care, including designing and operating their service so that they:
- provide information for users about how to identify and avoid harmful content and how to protect their personal information;
- take steps to reduce the spread of misinformation and disinformation;
- protect children from harmful content, including by age-gating certain types of content and providing parents with tools to control their children’s online activity;
- are transparent about how they use algorithms to recommend content to users.
But critics of the Bill point out that these media literacy provisions do not go far enough. As quoted in a recent article in Public Technology journal, Full Fact, the UK’s major independent fact-checking organisation, is disappointed that the Bill does not introduce adequate regulation to address misinformation and disinformation. In particular, Full Fact’s Head of Advocacy an Policy, Glen Tarman, regrets that social platforms’ media literacy duties are voluntary rather than obligatory. As of now, Full Fact has not set out a full statement on the final version of the Bill, but it explained its concerns more fully during the passage of the Bill through the House of Lords last July.
Finally, it is important to note that the Bill is still in its early stages of implementation, and it is not yet clear how Ofcom and online platforms will meet their new obligations under the law.
(1) Detailed information about the Bill can be found on the UK Parliament website; and guidance from the Government is set out here.
(2) For the weaknesses and challenges facing the Bill, see for instance ‘Online safety bill: why making the UK the ‘safest place to go online’ is not as easy as the government claims’, by Andy Phippen, Professor of IT Ethics and Digital Rights at Bournemouth University – The Conversation, 26 Sep 2023.
