Moved by
Baroness Merron
52: After Clause 15, after Clause 15, insert the following new Clause—
“Health disinformation and misinformation
(1) This section sets out the duties about harmful health disinformation and misinformation which apply in relation to Category 1 services.
The duties
(2) A duty to carry out and keep up to date a risk assessment of the risks presented by harmful health disinformation and misinformation that is present on the service.
(3) A duty to develop and maintain a policy setting out the service’s approach to the treatment of harmful health disinformation and misinformation on the service.
(4) A duty to explain in the policy how the service’s approach to the treatment of harmful disinformation and misinformation is designed to mitigate or manage any risks identified in the latest risk assessment.
(5) A duty to summarise the policy in the terms of service, and to include provisions in the terms of service about how that content is to be treated on the service.
(6) A duty to ensure that the policy, and any related terms of service, are—
(a) clear and accessible, and
(b) applied consistently.
(7) In this section, “harmful health disinformation and misinformation” means content which contains information which—
(a) is false or misleading in a material respect; and
(b) presents a material risk of significant harm to the health of an appreciable number of persons in the United Kingdom.”
Member’s explanatory statement
This new Clause would introduce a variety of duties on Category 1 platforms, in relation to their treatment of content which represents harmful health misinformation and disinformation.