Michelle Donelan: My Online Safety Bill will force tech platforms to remove antisemitic hate

In the last few weeks, several columnists in this paper have written passionately and eloquently about what it is like to be a Jewish person online: about the diatribe of antisemitic abuse and conspiracy theories they are subjected to, and how that virtual vitriol can turn into real-world violence.

Disgusting terms like #holohoax and #killthejews have been thrown around on social media platforms for years. Last year, a report by the Anti Defamation League found that variations of the phrase “Hitler was right” were used in more than 17,000 tweets in just one week.

Big tech could - and should - have stamped out this abuse. Antisemitism is explicitly banned in most social media companies’ own terms and conditions, and they are more than capable of enforcing those rules. These are some of the most technically capable and innovative companies in the world. They have the tools to tackle this problem. Instead, they have let hate flourish, knowing that it drives clicks and engagement. They have prioritised profit over people.

Big tech has failed to act. So now the government is stepping in to force them to act. This week, the Online Safety Bill returns to Parliament, paving the way for a new age of accountability for social media companies. At the heart of the Bill is the protection of children - but it also contains three crucial layers of protection for adults. If social media platforms fail in any of these duties, they will face huge fines, the potential blocking of their sites altogether.

First, platforms will have to urgently remove any illegal content from people’s feeds, including hate crimes, terrorism and child sexual abuse. This immediately dissolves a huge amount of the most vile and dangerous forms of antisemitism, which for too long have been allowed to fester and spread across our screens.

Second, they will have to remove any content banned in their own terms and conditions. This deals with a large quantity of the more subtle forms of antisemitism, such as conspiracy theories and abusive comparisons. These are the promises that tech companies have made to their own users - but time and again, they break those promises. Under my changes to the Bill, the terms and conditions that platforms set on antisemitism will have to be enforced to the letter. No longer will they be allowed to treat some sections of society differently to others.

And lastly, I have added in a third and final safety net which acts as a final backstop to the tough measures above. As well as being protected from illegal or prohibited content, users will also have the option to limit their exposure and interaction with a whole range of legal material that is abusive or incites hatred on the basis of religion and race - ensuring that both definitions of antisemitism are covered robustly. Freedom of speech does not equal freedom of reach.

Together, these protections form the basis of the ‘triple shield’ - the most comprehensive system for dealing with this kind of material that any country has attempted. What’s more, we will be adding new ‘name and shame’ measures that require platforms who breach their duties, including on antisemitism, to notify their users of their failures alongside receiving their fines and other penalties. Jewish campaign groups specifically asked me for this measure to be included if possible, and I am delighted to have found a way to get it in there.

This is a groundbreaking piece of legislation. I cannot promise that it will remove every single piece of antisemitic bile online. With billions of users online, that is an impossible task. But it will make a serious difference, and crucially, as the technology to identify new and varying forms antisemitism improves, this legislation is designed to move with it.

Platforms will no longer be able to make excuses or look the other way. For the first time in two decades, they will face real accountability, and be forced to do the thing they have been promising to do for years: protect their own users and clamp down on antisemitism once and for all.

Topics: