A report on the Draft Online Safety Bill has been published by the Joint Committee appointed by the House of Lords and House of Commons to conduct pre-legislative scrutiny of the Government’s draft Bill to establish a new regulatory framework to tackle harmful content online. Earlier this year, Gavin Millar QC gave evidence to the Committee alongside representatives of the Society of Editors, the News Media Association and DMG Media. He also provided written evidence. Gavin’s evidence has been referenced multiple times in the report including at para. 57:
“Gavin Millar QC, specialist in media law at Matrix Chambers, told us that the draft Bill as it stood was open to legal challenge. He saw a fundamental problem with transposing a duty of care approach into the regulation of online platforms being that the law of negligence is an unqualified duty, whereas duties on service providers involve balancing the fundamental rights of different groups of people against each other. He, along with other witnesses who had similar concerns, wanted to see the Bill go further in the direction of specifying exactly which risks of harm it intends to address and what service providers should be doing about it.”
To read the report in full, please see here.