Ofcom Launches First ‘Online Safety Act’ Investigation

The first official investigation utilising the powers of the Online Safety Act has been started by Ofcom.

The UK communications regulator announced that it “today launched an investigation into whether the provider of an online suicide forum has failed to comply with its duties under the UK’s Online Safety Act.”

The online suicide forum has not been named, but was exposed by the BBC three years ago, and is said to be linked to at least 50 deaths in the United Kingdom.

Ofcom investigation

The forum reportedly has tens of thousands of members, including children, and users discuss methods of suicide, sharing instructions about how to buy and use a potentially deadly toxic chemical.

Last month, Ofcom had gained the legal powers to take action against websites hosting illegal material, after duties came into force that meant service providers (including large tech platforms such as X, Facebook etc) must now implement safeguards to take action against illegal harms.

Offenders face the threat of fines of up to £18 million, or 10 percent of global revenue.

And in extreme cases, Ofcom has the power to block access to a website or app in the UK.

The UK’s Online Safety Act was passed into law in October 2023, and it brings into place more stringent measures against social media platforms, search engines, messaging systems, gaming and dating apps and pornography and file-sharing sites for failing to remove illegal content.

“This is the first investigation opened into an individual online service provider under these new laws,” said Ofcom. “Specifically, we are investigating whether this provider has failed to put appropriate safety measures in place to protect its UK users from illegal content and activity; complete – and keep a record of – a suitable and sufficient illegal harms risk assessment; and adequately respond to a statutory information request.”

“Our starting point in driving compliance is to give service providers an opportunity to engage with our dedicated compliance teams about what they need to do under their new duties,” said Ofcom.

“We’ve been clear, however, that failure to comply with the new online safety duties or adequately respond to our information requests may result in enforcement action, and that we would not hesitate to take swift action where we suspect there may be serious breaches,” it stated.

Unsatisfactory response

“We have made several attempts to engage with this service provider in respect of its duties under the Act and issued a legally binding request to submit the record of its illegal harms risk assessment to us,” the regulator stated.

But it said it had “received a limited response to our request, and unsatisfactory information about the steps being taken to protect UK users from illegal content, we have today launched an investigation into whether the provider is complying with its legal obligations under the Act.”

Ofcom said it will now gather and analyse evidence to determine whether a contravention has occurred.

“If our assessment indicates a compliance failure, we will issue a provisional notice of contravention to the provider, who can then make representations on our findings, before we make our final decision,” it stated.