Bad information ruins lives. The online misinformation that has come with the pandemic has made this even more evident. We can’t afford to go on relying on internet companies to make decisions without independent scrutiny and transparency.

Full Fact has long called for the government to take action. Confirmation this week that the Online Safety Bill will go ahead is welcome, but overdue. Good legislation and regulation could make a significant difference in tackling bad information online.

But inside and out of Parliament, this Bill will require close scrutiny. Law and regulation for online safety must be balanced with the need to protect—and enhance—freedom of expression. Tackling misinformation shouldn’t just be handed over to a Government-appointed regulator.

The draft Online Safety Bill was published on Wednesday and Full Fact will publish a full analysis soon.

As the UK Covid-19 vaccine roll out has gathered pace, and the use of “vaccine passports” continues to be debated, we’ve seen a number of people voice their opposition online.

A claim we’re seeing time and time again is that the vaccine programme is an infringement of their rights under the Nuremberg Code.

The Nuremberg Code is a set of ethical research principles, developed in the wake of Nazi atrocities during World War Two.

In our latest long read feature, we speak to experts in medical ethics, healthcare law and social epidemiology about the Code and its principles.

What they told us was clear: the Code is not relevant to current debates about the Covid-19 vaccine. For example, the Nuremberg Code relates specifically to experimentation—the three Covid vaccines currently in use in the UK have been shown to be safe and effective in large scale clinical trials.

Last week we wrote about a map in the print version of the Daily Express which gave a very misleading impression of the current state of the pandemic in the UK.

It claimed to show the number of new Covid cases in each nation and region of the UK, with several apparently showing zero cases.

In fact, all these numbers were wrong.

We wrote to the Daily Express and are pleased that they agreed to correct the record. A correction appeared in the print edition of the paper on Monday.

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