Speeches by Dixon.

“Talking about compatibility with domestic law, in the Online Safety Act it is an offence to make threats recklessly even if the perpetrator does not intend to carry them out. Meta’s policy is to remove threats of violence to public figures only if they are what they describe as “credible”. Is that policy that Meta has …”

“I think it is less than 50%, less than that, which given what Ben has just outlined, which is clearly illegal or would appear to be, is really quite disappointing to hear.”

“My colleague asked if the owner of your company had ever had any of his comments taken down. He called one of our colleagues a “rape genocide apologist” and said that she should be jailed. That led to her safety, which my colleague knows about directly, being extremely compromised, but somehow that is not a justificati…”

“It was posted over a year ago.”

“We gave your colleague from X an example. We have also given you an example—the post about Andy McDonald, which I think was in response to his football team doing well, to which somebody replied, “Come in to Middlesbrough you will get a good slap, you waste of space.” That is a threat of violence. Is that not credible?”

“But you do not monitor those conversations so that you know whether somebody is plotting to harm somebody or is a terrorist.”

“What about end-to-end encryption and plotting to harm?”

“But how do you define something as credible? Is it entirely based on context?”

“Megan, Meta’s policy is to remove threats of violence to public figures only if they are “credible”. Why should a threat of violent injury have to be credible to be abusive, and how do you assess its credibility? Given that you have end-to-end encryption, how would you know that there were people plotting to harm or ha…”

“We did that in advance. I do not know if you have seen them, but they were circulated to the company.”

“I have a quick observation to make. The reason why I am here is that so many of our colleagues are, quite rightly, prepared to talk about how badly wrong things can go, but I think we also have a responsibility to say when it goes well. The chief constable I know is very grateful to me for the fact that I am saying tha…”

“You can observe it.”

“Generally speaking, do you find that it is working? Your colleagues across the country investigate things and bring them to the CPS. Is the CPS working? Is that a smooth interaction, or is it too gritty?”

“Lucky me!”

“What do you think we could do to make sure that that is not the case any more, and that everybody is as “fortunate” as I am?”

“I did take the Minister to visit them.”

“One of the reasons why I asked Mr Speaker to come on to the conference is that, shortly after I was elected two years ago, I was a victim of stalking. I live in Cheshire police’s area. They handled it really well. The Bridger contact referred me into the stalking unit of the constabulary, which was superb. The unit the…”

“You can observe it.”

“Generally speaking, do you find that it is working? Your colleagues across the country investigate things and bring them to the CPS. Is the CPS working? Is that a smooth interaction, or is it too gritty?”

“Lucky me!”