Online harms resource page

Carnegie UK worked for over four years to develop and promote a systemic, risk-based approach to regulation to tackle online harm in the UK and has influenced the development of the UK’s Online Safety Act. This programme of work came to an end in October 2023. However, our former associates Maeve Walsh and Professor Lorna Woods have continued to work on the implementation of the Online Safety Act. To get in touch with them, or find more about this work, please visit their website. To keep up with the latest developments on their work, you can also sign up to their new newsletter here. 

You can access an archive of our programme page for Online Harms here. You can read archived editions of our former Online Harms newsletter here. 

An archive of our dedicated Online Safety Act resource page can be read below.

Carnegie UK worked for over four years to promote a systems-based approach to regulation to tackle online harm in the UK.  During this time, we published numerous reports, analyses, blog posts, consultation responses and parliamentary submissions which helped shape the policy debate and the subsequent legislation.

This page provides easy access to the key documents, including our briefings, analyses and commentary on the Online Safety Bill (OSB) as it passed through Parliament.

In addition, we have included a section with external links to important documents related to the OSB, not published by Carnegie UK.

Online Safety Bill: CUK analysis, briefing and commentary

• Carnegie UK Response to House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee Inquiry into Large Language Models (published November 2023)
• Online safety and Carnegie UK (October 2023)  In this blog we talk about the work carried out by Carnegie UK in relation to the Online Safety Act.
• New social media law will reduce harm says Carnegie UK (October 2023) In this news release we celebrate the Online Safety Act being given royal assent.
• Bringing small high-harm platforms into the Online Safety Bill (July 2023) In this blog we reiterate the concerns we’ve had throughout the Bill’s passage on the unmitigated risks posed by small but high-harm platforms.
• Enabling better coordination between regulators in the Online Safety Bill (July 2023) This blog covers the ongoing need for improved regulatory coordination to ensure a robust regulatory regime.
• Secretary of State powers in the Online Safety Bill (July 2022)
• Strengthening the user empowerment tools in The Online Safety Bill (July 2023)
• Prof Lorna Woods joins a panel to discuss online safety regulation at the Family Online Safety Institute European summit (June 2023)
• Online Safety Bill: the new intimate image abuse offence – initial analysis (June 2023)
• The Metaverse and Machine Generated Content (June 2023) Professor Lorna Woods considers whether the Bill – as currently drafted – adequately covers the common elements associated with “metaverse”-type environments.
• The Communications Offences under the OSB (Part 10) (June 2023)
• Prof Lorna Woods is interviewed on Global Counsel’s “Top in Tech” podcast (May 2023)
• Prof Lorna Woods discusses the Online Safety Bill on BBC Radio 4’s The Briefing Room (May 2023)
• Global Digital Compact Submission – UK Coalition on Violence Against Women and Girls Code of Practice (April 2023)
• Campaign for #DataAccess in the Online Safety Bill (April 2023)
• Online Safety Bill: amendments to reduce Secretary of State powers and protect Ofcom’s independence (April 2023)
• Online Safety Bill – Amendments to strengthen the Online Safety Bill “Triple Shield” (April 2023)
• Online Safety Bill – Lords Second Reading Status Report (Feb 2023) We bring together our most recent analysis of the issues that Peers will return to in the course of the Committee stages of the Bill.
• Letter to the Lords Communication and Digital Committee (Dec 2022)
• Online Safety (recommitted clauses and schedules) Bill Written evidence from Carnegie UK (Dec 2022)
• Online Safety Bill – indicative amendments (Dec 2022) In this technical note we discuss the Government’s proposed ‘Indicative Amendments’ (IA) to the Online Safety Bill.
• Coalition letter to the Secretary of State calling for VAWG Code of Practice to be added to Online Safety Bill (Dec 2022)
• The Online Safety Bill – Status Report (Dec 2022) Professor Lorna Woods explains the difference between the original Bill and the proposed changes, and explains what is likely to happen next with the Online Safety Bill.
• Online Safety Bill and the “harmful but legal” debate (Nov 2022) This blog explains what the OSB adult safety duty does and why it matters.
• Prof Lorna Woods’ participation in Dentons Regulating the Internet – Really? event on Regulating online harm and avoiding surveillance (Nov 2022)
• What’s next? A review of the committee stage of the Online Safety Bill (July 2022) In this blog we provide a summary of the Online Safety Bill committee stage, what changed, what might change, what will stay the same & what will happen next.
• Coalition letter to the government on essential children’s amendments – CUK is a signatory. (June 2022)
• Professor Lorna Woods and William Perrin’s evidence to the Online Safety Bill Committee (May 2022):
  • • Transcript of the oral evidence
    • Recording of the oral evidence
    • CUK’s written evidence
• Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Code of Practice (May 2022) A ready-to-use set of guidelines, or ‘Code of Practice’ to tackle violence against women and girls online, produced collaboratively by experts including End Violence Against Women Coalition, Glitch, Refuge, Carnegie UK, NSPCC, 5Rights and Professors Clare McGlynn and Lorna Woods.
• Pornography and the Online Safety Bill (May 2022) This is a briefing paper by Professor Lorna Woods and Professor Clare McGlynn.
• Evidence to the Public Bill Committee by Professor Clare McGlynn and Professor Lorna Woods and on Pornography Regulation (June 2022)
• Second Reading Briefing (April 2022)
• Online Safety Bill: An Overview (March 2022)
• Online Safety Bill: Initial Analysis (March 2022):
  • Full paper
  • Blog post
• Prof Lorna Woods’ evidence to Fraud Act 2006 and Digital Fraud Committee (March 2022):
  • Transcript of the oral evidence
  • Recording of the oral evidence
  • CUK’s written evidence
• Prof Lorna Woods’ participation in Mishcon de Reya panel on the Online Safety Bill (March 2022)
• Welcoming Joint Committee support for including paid-for-ads in the Bill (Dec 2021)

CUK blog posts relevant to our current thinking on the Bill:

• Regulating the future: the Online Safety Bill and the metaverse (Feb 2022) In this blog, we discuss whether the OSB will cover the metaverse.
• An inconvenient truth – radical change needed to online safety bill to tackle climate disinformation (Dec 2021) This blog proposes amendments to the draft Online Safety Bill to bring climate disinformation into scope.
• The Online Safety Bill – reducing complexity, establishing a foundation duty (Nov 2021) This blog provides context for the extensive amendments we proposed to the simplify and strengthen the draft Bill (see below).
• Secretary of State’s powers and the draft Online Safety Bill (Sep 2021) This analysis explains why the exceptional powers in the draft Bill are problematic.
• Racist abuse of footballers using social media and the draft Online Safety Bill (July 2021) Our response to the racist abuse of black England footballers after the Euro 2020 final.
• Increased online safety for people involved in the democratic process in the UK (March 2021) This blog post sets out how elected representatives could be better protected by the online safety regime.
• Freedom of Expression, Speech Rights & Modern Regulation (Jan 2021) In the light of the insurrection at the US Capitol on 6^th January 2021, we consider the implications for social media regulation.
• Online Harms – Interlocking Regulation (Sep 2020) This blog post sets out our initial proposals for a system of regulatory co-operation to ensure effective regulation of online harms.

External OSB links

• Online Safety Bill (as brought from the Commons to the Lords) (Feb 2023)
• Online Safety Bill  (as amended in Public Bill Committee) (June 2022)
• Committee stage full transcript (June 2022)
• Online Safety Bill Committee membership
• Second Reading debate transcript (April 2022)
• Online Safety Bill (March 2022)
• Online Safety Bill: supporting documents (DCMS)
• Parliament: Online Safety Bill

Draft OSB: CUK submissions and analysis

• Response to Online Advertising Programme Consultation (June 2022)
• Submission to Online Safety Bill Committee (May 2022)
• Call for Evidence – Fraud Act 2006 Committee (April 2022)
• Submission to the Australian House Select Committee on Social Media and Online Safety (Jan 2022)
• Evidence to Treasury Committee inquiry into Economic Crime (Dec 2021)
• Carnegie UK revised Draft Online Safety Bill (Nov 2021)
• Carnegie UK Draft OSB Amendments (Nov 2021)
• William Perrin’s evidence to Petitions Committee (Nov 2021):
  • Transcript of the oral evidence
  • Recording of the oral evidence
• Evidence to Joint Committee on the Draft Online Safety Bill (Sep 2021)
• William Perrin’s evidence to Joint Committee (Sep 2021):
  • Transcript of the oral evidence
  • Recording of the oral evidence
• Evidence to DCMS Committee on draft Online Safety Bill (Sep 2021)
• Evidence to Petitions Committee Inquiry into Tackling Online Abuse (Sep 2021)
• The Draft Online Safety Bill: Carnegie UK Trust Initial Analysis (June 2021)

CUK key background reference documents

• Tackling Online Harm and the Online Safety Bill: introducing Carnegie UK (May 2022)
• DRAFT Code of Practice in respect of Hate Crime and wider legal harms: covering paper (Jan 2021) A draft code of practice developed in collaboration with a number of civil society organisations representing victims of online harm.
• The Carnegie Statutory Duty of Care and Fundamental Freedoms (Dec 2019) This paper by Professor Lorna Woods OBE explores the intersection between the duty of care and fundamental freedoms, in particular the right to freedom of expression.
• Carnegie UK – Draft Online Harm Reduction Bill (Dec 2019) A draft Bill developed to demonstrate how a regulatory scheme involving a duty of care enforced by an independent regulator might operate.
• Online harm reduction – a statutory duty of care and regulator (April 2019) The full original proposal by Professor Lorna Woods and William Perrin, setting out a regime for social media companies to take steps to reduce the risk of reasonably foreseeable harm.