Hacked Off Chief Executive Nathan Sparkes said,

“The Online Safety Bill in its current form will do nothing to address much of the racism, misogyny and otherwise abusive content circulating online.

The Government has inserted loopholes into the Bill for news providers which are so broad that they are likely to protect extremist and dangerous websites from any form of regulatory action.

The exemption for newspaper comment sections, where harms including antisemitism and conspiracy theories have been found, is equally damaging to the purposes of the Bill and will create one rule for platforms run from Silicon Valley and another for those run from Fleet Street.

Politicians must put the protection of the public from online harms ahead of their relationships with newspaper proprietors, and fix these loopholes before this Bill becomes law.”