Moved by
Baroness Janke
33A: After Clause 95, insert the following new Clause—
“Duties on providers of social media services
After section 131 of the Communications Act 2003 (statement of policy on persistent misuse) insert—
“131A Duties on providers of social media services
(1) In this section “social media service” means a website or application that enables users to create and share content, to communicate publicly and privately with other users, and to participate in social networking.
(2) Social media services have a general duty to respond to reports of material shared or communicated via their website or application (“the content”) that passes the “criminal test” set out in subsection (3).
(3) The criminal test is whether the content would, if published by other means, or communicated in person, cause a criminal offence to be committed.
(4) Social media services have a duty to provide a means for users to report content which, in the view of the user, meets the criminal test.
(5) Social media services have a duty to remove content which demonstrably meets the criminal test within the prescribed period, and to inform the police.
(6) The prescribed period must be set out in regulations made by the Secretary of State within 120 days of the commencement of this section.
(7) Regulations under subsection (6) may prescribe different periods for different categories of social media services, to be determined by the number of users that service has at the time a report is made under the provisions of subsection (4).
(8) Regulations made under this section must be made by statutory instrument, and may not be made unless a draft of the instrument has been laid before and approved by a resolution of each House of Parliament.”