The House of Lords Communications Committee will continue hearing evidence for its inquiry The Internet: to regulate or not to regulate? on Tuesday 15 May. The Committee will question representatives of the National Crime Agency and the National Police Chiefs’ Council. Also giving evidence are witnesses from the Internet Watch Foundation and the Metropolitan Police.
The Committee will ask the witnesses about the challenges of dealing with internet crime; how their organisations seek to remove illegal online content; and whether they have enough resources to deal with the scale of cybercrime.
The evidence session will begin at 3.30pm in Committee Room 2 of the House of Lords. The Committee will hear from:
- Will Kerr, Director of Vulnerabilities, National Crime Agency
- Donald Toon, Director of Prosperity, National Crime Agency
- Chief Constable Stephen Kavanagh, National Police Chiefs’ Council
- Susie Hargreaves, Chief Executive, Internet Watch Foundation
- Detective Superintendent Phil Tomlinson, Head of the National Digital Exploitation Service, Metropolitan Police
Over the course of the session the Committee are likely to ask the following questions:
- How are hate speech and similar offences distinguished from speech which is merely offensive?
- Is it reasonable to expect platforms or other internet hosting services to self-regulate content online?
- How do you distinguish terrorist content from legitimate speech, especially where the content endorses a conservative religious worldview?
- Does the adoption of encryption in various forms (including encrypted web browsers such as the Dark Net and end-to-end encryption services such as Whatsapp) make the task of law enforcement more difficult?
- What technological tools are used by law enforcement agencies or stakeholders in determining whether content is illegal? What is the human oversight of such technology tools?
