The impact of the Online Safety Bill.

The Online Safety Act (OSA), passed by the UK Parliament in 2023, is one of the most comprehensive pieces of legislation globally designed to regulate content on the internet and impose a duty of care on major tech companies. Its impact is vast, affecting fundamental areas from user safety and free speech to how social media platforms and search engines operate.

I. Core Mandate: The Duty of Care

The central mechanism of the OSA is the imposition of a legal duty of care on providers of user-to-user services (social media, forums) and search engines. These services are categorized based on their size and risk profile:

• Category 1 (Highest Risk): Applies to the largest platforms (e.g., Meta, TikTok, Google Search) with the most reach. They face the most stringent requirements.
• Other Categories: Apply lesser duties, often focused only on illegal content.

This duty of care requires platforms to proactively mitigate risks identified in the legislation, which include:

• Protecting Children: Platforms must implement effective measures to protect children from illegal content and “priority harmful content” (like self-harm, bullying, and content promoting eating disorders). This involves age verification, stricter content removal, and design changes to enhance child safety.
• Tackling Illegal Content: All regulated services must rapidly remove content deemed illegal under UK law (e.g., terrorism, child sexual abuse material, revenge porn). They must also prevent its recurrence.
• Protecting Adults’ Rights: Platforms must uphold the right to freedom of expression and refrain from unjustly removing legal content. They must also enforce their own terms and conditions transparently and effectively to remove content that violates them.

II. Impact on Enforcement and Regulation

The Act grants significant powers to the independent regulator, Ofcom, transforming its role in the digital space.

• Enforcement Powers: Ofcom now has the authority to investigate platforms, demand access to data and internal systems, and issue substantial penalties for non-compliance.
  • Fines: Non-compliant companies can face fines of up to £18 million or 10% of their global annual revenue, whichever is higher. This enormous financial penalty is designed to ensure compliance among tech giants.
  • Access Orders: In severe cases of persistent non-compliance or failure to remove illegal content, the regulator can seek court orders to require services to be blocked in the UK.
• Transparency Requirements: Platforms are required to be transparent about how their algorithms and content moderation policies function. Ofcom can require risk assessments to be published, giving users and researchers insight into how content is prioritized and amplified.

III. Consequences for Technology and Free Speech

The legislation has spurred major debates and practical challenges regarding technology, privacy, and rights.

• Encryption and Privacy: A highly contentious aspect relates to private messaging and encrypted services (like WhatsApp or Signal). The Act contains provisions allowing Ofcom to mandate technology that scans user messages for child sexual abuse material (CSAM) before it’s sent. Critics argue this requirement poses a direct threat to end-to-end encryption and mass surveillance, while proponents argue it is essential for child protection.
• Shifting Content Moderation: Platforms are now incentivized to be proactive and potentially over-moderate to avoid massive fines. This could lead to the removal of legal but controversial content, impacting political discourse and niche communities.
• Innovation and Competition: The requirements are costly to implement, potentially creating barriers to entry for smaller start-ups and favoring incumbent tech giants that have the resources for compliance.

In short, the Online Safety Act has positioned the UK as a pioneer in internet regulation, fundamentally altering the legal and operational landscape for tech companies and shifting the responsibility for online safety from the user to the platform.