Data access and the Online Safety Bill
The Online Safety Bill, which the governmentsaysdelivers its ‘manifesto commitment to make the UK the safest place in the world to be online while defending free expression’, is back in Parliament after some revision and delay. Having made it through the House of Commons, it is now at Committee Stage in the House of Lords, where peers will examine the Bill line by line.
It must then make it through the remaining legislative stages:
It must receive Royal Assent before the end of this parliamentary session in autumn 2023, otherwise the Bill will fall. The Bill was first introduced to the Commons back in March 2022; it was first published in draft in May 2021, following extensive consultation (when it was known as‘Online Harms’); and the idea can be traced back even further,at least to Karen Bradley’s 2016-18 tenureat DCMS under Theresa May, since when there have been three more prime ministers, six more secretaries of state and two responsible departments.
Most of the discussion (and controversy) has focused on protecting children online, freedom of expression (including ‘legal but harmful’ content), the regulation of content rather than systems and platforms, criminal penalties for executives at big tech companies and many other subjects in what has sometimes been referred to as a ‘Christmas tree’ or ‘kitchen sink’ bill, with an ever-expanding range of issues being included (from consumer protection to outlawing content about channel boat crossings).
But what about data?
Where data has made an appearance in the debate, it has been in the context of recommending government utilise data to better understand online harms, and making such data more available to external researchers.
For example, in their2022 annual report, the factchecking organization Full Fact called for Ofcom to begiven a remitfor researching and understanding the harms caused by misinformation and disinformation online and publishing such information. It noted several initiatives already underway (including the Online Safety Data Initiative, convened by the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation, and other DCMS-funded research), and made some specific recommendations about a proposed committee on disinformation and misinformation (to oversee Ofcom’s research and for Ofcom to establish a panel to understand citizen views on online harms). But it also floated the idea of an independent evidence centre – perhaps based on the models provided by the government’s network of What Works Centres and similar organisations, like the Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence (ESCoE). Government itself has acknowledged problems around a lack of data and metrics on data and digital issues in general (for example, in itsmonitoring and evaluation frameworkfor the National Data Strategy).
Several organisations – including the Ada Lovelace Institute, Demos, Digital Action, Doteveryone and Reset, as well as Full Fact – have called for a ‘wider ecosystem of inspection’, such as researchers at academic and other research institutions, to havegreater access to data from platforms. The head of Ofcomalso called for provisions around independent researcher access to be strengthened. These calls come in the context of tech companies restricted access to external researchers in recent years (such asFacebook, andTwitter announcing it will charge for API accessjust last week), and with the EU’sDigital Services Acthaving greater transparency provision for accredited researchers. The Online Safety Bill merely requires that Ofcom produce a report which should describe the extent of access for those carrying out independent research, explore the issues constraining access, and assess the extent to which greater access to information might be achieved, rather than doing anything to provide greater access. Outside the UK,Brookings have criticizedthe lack of data availability mandated by the Bill.
