Thank you for contacting me about fraudulent advertising and the Online Safety Bill.

I have always supported measures to tackle fraudulent advertising. In my view existing laws to protect consumers in the online world have failed to keep pace with those attempting to exploit them. This is particularly true of scams and fraudulent advertisements. Therefore it is clear that action to tackle this problem is long overdue.

Statistics suggest that there is a steep increase in this type of crime in the online world, and these figures are likely to underestimate the problem. They also do not demonstrate the devastating emotional and psychological impact these scams can have on victims. Not only are people scammed out of their money, but they can go through intense stress, shame and humiliation.

As you know, the Online Safety Bill now contains duties on online service providers to prevent individuals from encountering fraudulent advertising and to remove such content when alerted to it. I would have liked to see these duties require platforms to differentiate between paid-for and non-paid-for advertisements, and I am disappointed that the Government voted against Labour’s amendments to do this.

I am also very concerned about a recent addition to the Bill. The Government states this clarifies how providers should approach judgements about whether content is illegal or fraudulent advertising. I worry it raises the evidence threshold needed for platforms to determine what is fraudulent too high and will therefore reduce significantly the amount of fraudulent advertising that is correctly identified and acted on.

More widely, I believe the Government’s decision to make substantial changes to the Bill by removing the ‘legal but harmful’ provisions represents a major watering down of the Bill. It means the legislation will now return to a previous parliamentary stage in its journey and risks delaying the Bill even further. Meanwhile, unregulated algorithms and business models which reward sensational, extreme, controversial and abusive behavior online continue to encourage disinformation and scammers.

I want to see the Bill make its way into the House of Lords for further scrutiny as soon as possible to ensure this legislation becomes law before the end of the parliamentary year.