The Online Safety Act, passed by the UK government in October 2023, has brought about a significant shift for tech platforms operating in the country. These platforms, including social media firms, search engines, messaging apps, gaming apps, and pornography sites, are now required to remove any illegal content that may appear on their platforms. This encompasses a wide range of harmful content such as terror, hate, fraud, child sexual abuse, and content encouraging suicide.
The law gave companies until March 16, 2025, to complete a risk assessment of the illegal content that could potentially appear on their services. In December 2024, Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator, provided guidance on how this risk assessment should be conducted, including the use of risk profiles as a basis for evaluation.
As of March 17, Ofcom has been given the power to sanction any platform that fails to comply with the regulations outlined in the Online Safety Act. Penalties for non-compliance can be as high as £18 million or 10% of the company’s global revenue, whichever is greater. In extreme cases, the regulator may even seek a court order to block access to the offending site within the UK.
Experts in the field have weighed in on the challenges and opportunities presented by the Online Safety Act. Mark Jones, a Partner at British law firm Payne Hicks Beach, emphasizes that simply completing the risk assessment is not enough. Tech companies must actively work to identify and remove illegal content to demonstrate their accountability under the new framework.
On the other hand, Jason Soroko, Senior Fellow at Sectigo, raises concerns about the potential negative impact of the legislation on smaller platforms. He warns that the cost and technical feasibility of implementing the necessary age verification and content moderation tools could prove challenging for smaller operators, potentially driving them out of the market or pushing explicit content into unregulated spaces.
Despite these challenges, Iona Silverman, a Partner at Freeths, sees the Online Safety Act as a powerful tool to combat harmful online content. She supports the government’s focus on tackling criminality rather than censoring debate but emphasizes the need for robust enforcement by Ofcom, particularly for larger platforms that have shown signs of potential non-compliance.
One example cited by Silverman is Meta’s recent decision to discontinue its third-party fact-checking program in favor of a community-driven model. With Mark Zuckerberg acknowledging that these changes could result in the platform missing harmful content, it highlights the importance of platforms making concrete commitments to removing such content to ensure compliance with the Online Safety Act.
In conclusion, the Online Safety Act represents a significant step forward in regulating online content in the UK. While challenges remain in implementation and enforcement, the ultimate success of the Act will depend on pragmatic guidance, proportional enforcement, and advancements in privacy-preserving verification methods.