Speeches by Wright.

“I am interested in what you think about the fundamental design questions around social media, and in how much we can really counteract them. I agree with everything that has been said, but there is something specific, is there not, about the way that political debate unfolds on social media, as opposed to many other fo…”

“In terms of giving people the tools to exercise their scepticism about what they might be seeing, do you think that there is more scope for watermarking, or something similar, that enables people immediately to understand that something is an AI-generated image, text, video—whatever it may be?”

“Can we talk about artificial intelligence? We have not mentioned it so far. How do you think artificial intelligence will change the picture that we have been describing, either positively or negatively?”

“I am interested in what you think about the fundamental design questions around social media, and in how much we can really counteract them. I agree with everything that has been said, but there is something specific, is there not, about the way that political debate unfolds on social media, as opposed to many other fo…”

“The right hon. Lady is absolutely entitled to explain the Government’s position, but if her argument is that there is legal uncertainty, she had better get used to it, because there is legal uncertainty about a lot of things. If her argument is that lots of people disagree with the UK’s position, she had also better ge…”

“Does my right hon. Friend agree that those who are led by lawyers—there is nothing wrong with that—should at least get the law right? If there is legal jeopardy here, does she agree that we should understand what that jeopardy is? She knows that the International Court of Justice cannot make a binding ruling against th…”

“I am grateful to everyone who has spoken in the debate. We have talked about the consensus there was in the passage of the Online Safety Bill. I think it is fair to say that that consensus is broadly still present, based on what Members have said this morning, and I am grateful for it. There is a need to get this Act i…”

“The Minister might be about to come to the point I want to raise with her, which is about proportionality. Will she say something about that? I am keen to understand whether the Government accept Ofcom’s understanding of the term—that proportional measures are those measures that can be evidenced as effective. I gave r…”

“The hon. Gentleman identifies a real risk in this space: we are always playing catch-up, and so are the regulators. That is why we have tried—perhaps not entirely successfully—to design legislation that gives the regulators the capacity to move faster, but we have to ask them to do so and they have to take responsibili…”

“The hon. Gentleman makes an interesting point. We have to balance two things, though. We want consistency, as he suggests, but we also want platforms to respond to the circumstances of their own service, and to push the boundaries of what they can achieve by way of safety measures. As I said, they are in a better posit…”

“I beg to move, That this House has considered the implementation of the Online Safety Act 2023. It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stringer, and I am grateful for the opportunity to open the debate. Let me start with some positives. The Online Safety Act 2023 is certainly not the last word on t…”

“Can we talk about artificial intelligence? We have not mentioned it so far. How do you think artificial intelligence will change the picture that we have been describing, either positively or negatively?”

“The Secretary of State is very generous in giving way. Before he finishes, may I ask him about the situation we are creating with this Bill and the Online Safety Act 2023 of setting a framework within which regulators need to operate and cover a good deal of ground? Does he think the advent of these pieces of legislati…”

“The Minister will be well aware that the growth of AI across the country depends on a ready supply of data and other content on which models can be trained. She will recognise that much of that content comes from our creative industries, and she will know that they are profoundly troubled that they are not being proper…”

“There is a great deal in this Bill that we can all support, but some difficult concepts lurk within it, as I know the Secretary of State will recognise. He is talking about data transparency. One of the issues of concern is about precisely what we mean by the “scientific research” on which data may be employed, and pre…”

“When you say “substantial problems”, do you mean that they did not show up, or did they not do what you expected them to do when they did?”

“May I ask you both about the support you offer to your candidates to deal with the problems that you have just identified? Mike, you have said something about it already. Specifically, I think we are interested in knowing about what level of support you can offer your candidates when it comes to threats and harassment.…”

“What was your sense of the response you got from the platforms? Good, bad or indifferent.”

“Understood. The same question to Bob and Stephen—again, if you can pick up the aspects of physical security and of online threat, and what advice you offer on those, that would be helpful.”

“Fair enough. Andrew, do you want to add to that, or does that cover it?”