Dr. T.J. McIntyre:

The answer to the Chairman's question depends on what type of content we are looking at, and, broadly, there are three in this area. One is content, which amounts to a criminal offence at the moment, and we know the answer to that is some reform of the criminal law, greater resources for the enforcement of the criminal law and greater work on the international co-operation and investigation elements.

The second is the area of civil harms in the form of, for example, defamation and invasion of privacy. We again have a consensus that the answer to that is to a large extent going to be greater enforcement by technology firms of the law when abuses are brought to their attention and ensuring greater access to justice by individuals who, for example, are defamed, although we have no consensus how that might be done in a cost-effective way.

The third area is wider. It is probably one that is at the heart of a lot of this discussion, although perhaps it has been unspoken throughout today's proceedings, that is, the question of content that is not in any in breach of the law but is simply toxic, nasty and unpleasant. The answer to that to a large extent is not to deploy the law. There is a problem in that, speaking as a lawyer and in the context of the legislative process, when one's only tool is a hammer, then every problem looks like a nail and it comes naturally to think about legislative solutions. To a large extent, the answer to dealing with unpleasant environments in the online space will be to address what encourages them to persist. Technology firms predominantly operate on the basis of a profit motive and as long as they allow content on their sites that is unpleasant and they profit from engagement with that, they will continue to do it. The technology industry for the most part is funded through advertising and very often a solution will be for individuals to approach advertisers and say they do not want to use their product or to be associated with them if they are going to continue to prop up that unpleasant environment. That has been very effective in the United Kingdom in the context of the tabloids where a lot of the very unpleasant elements of tabloid culture, for example, some of the casual racism and the abuse of privacy of individuals - elements which are largely without legal sanction - have been toned down by boycotts of advertisers where people have said, "Enough is enough", and they do not want to support that unpleasantness in The Sun, for example, anymore and until it stops they will boycott advertisers who deal with them.