Speeches by Swallow.

“Rebecca, I am going to stop you there. I am a Labour MP and, broadly speaking, on the centre left of politics. Whenever I go to my Facebook feed, all I am served, endlessly, is far-right content. That is not designed for me—it is designed to get my engagement, but it is not designed for me. Obviously, that is the exper…”

“Just on that point, according to Childline, if I block someone on Instagram, they can still find my profile. Therefore, the advice is that I change my username. Is that the case? If so, why is the advice that the victim should change something about the way they are responding on your platform?”

“I thought so—I was just checking.”

“Again, I note that you are not putting a specific number on it.”

“Rebecca, how does the Facebook algorithm rate an “angry” reaction or a “laughing” reaction compared with a “like” reaction in the way that it then feeds into the algorithm that curates?”

“And when bullying is detected, either automatically or because it is reported by the victim, what is the typical response time, and what feedback do they receive?”

“One last question on this point with brief answers appreciated. You both refer to the way your algorithms support your age-verification process. What level of quality assurance have you done on that? How accurate is that process?”

“Specifically the process of looking at what users are engaging with, to check that they are the age that they say they are.”

“How accurate is that?”

“Like many Members of Parliament, I have been speaking to constituents about social media for under-16s as part of the Government consultation into this. I was contacted by a number of constituents who have concerns about bullying on social media, including Amy, who works as a social worker. She says that she has worked…”

“The way that Instagram, TikTok and Facebook work is that users upload content. We have talked a lot about that content today. There are various ways to use apps but, broadly speaking, other users are then fed that content through their “For you” page, or the Instagram or Facebook feeds. What those users are fed is driv…”

“Do you make money out of having a personalised algorithm?”

“Obviously, we are talking about the bullying of children. I am a Member of Parliament, and as you can imagine I sometimes have people on social media say very unkind things about me. That is of course their democratic right. There are things that take place on social media that are deeply unpleasant but are not illegal…”

“T8. As the MP for Sandhurst, I am proud to represent many armed forces families. As the Minister will know, armed forces families often move around, but no particular support seems to be given to their children. There is no marker to identify these children, they do not qualify for fair access protocols, and they are g…”

“I am the chair of the all-party parliamentary group on social mobility, for which the Sutton Trust is the secretariat.”

“As the MP for an area with very high living costs—the costs of renting in Bracknell are as high as in many places in London, for example—I think a lot about how challenging it can be to identify what poverty means in a particular location, because it does differ. It also differs for different groups because of the cost…”

“Alun, this is to you as well. The Social Mobility Commission was originally set up following the previous child poverty strategy, in order to monitor it. What role, if any, do you expect the SMC to play in monitoring progress of this new child poverty strategy?”

“When this Government took office, they inherited an armed forces on its knees and responded to that challenge with the largest sustained increase in defence spending since the cold war and a bold 10-year strategic defence review to ensure that we have an armed forces that once again is able to protect our nation. That …”

“As well as being a member of the Education Committee, which has done sterling work on this point, I am a member of the Joint Committee on Human Rights, which is undertaking an inquiry on human rights in the care system. We held a powerful roundtable with care-experienced young people, and that point was powerfully made…”

“That is very helpful and I appreciate that answer, but very specifically, will the commission be including updates on the progress of the strategy in its annual reports, alongside all the broader work that you want to be doing?”