Watch out Elon? British media regulator warns tech firms to be ready for ‘strong action’ when Online Safety Act kicks in
Ofcom, the UK telecoms and media regulator, has issued a stark warning to big name tech platforms about their content moderation practices.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Ofcom chief executive Melanie Dawes said that it will take “strong action” against tech companies that break new rules on content moderation, even if it has limited powers to stop the spread of lies online.
The warning comes ahead of the UK’s controversial Online Safety Act, which received Royal Assent in October 2023 and is set to come into full force next year.
Strong powers
The Online Safety Act will require websites and platforms to set and enforce clear content moderation policies, and to quickly remove illegal content.
“We have got some pretty strong powers here,” Melanie Dawes told the Financial Times, adding that Ofcom would be fully prepared to enforce the legislation quickly.
“There will be some [websites] who we need to take strong action against and we’re gearing up for that now so that we can be really fast,” she was quoted as saying.
The warning comes after Elon Musk clashed directly with the British government over free speech vs social media posts that made false claims, which prompted riots and violence in certain parts of the UK in the summer.
Musk had accused Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour government of censorship and recently falsely claimed it was “releasing convicted paedophiles in order to imprison people for social media posts” – a reference to a policy of releasing some offenders early to ease prison overcrowding.
But Elon Musk’s X (as well as Telegram) have also been blamed for enabling the spread of misinformation and being notably slow to act on harmful material.
Indeed, Musk repeatedly relayed posts containing misinformation to his 193 million followers on the service, and criticised the British government for cracking down on hate speech.
Elon Musk
In August Ofcom had urged social media companies to take action against posts inciting violence, and the government warned it may revisit the Online Safety Act.
The media regulator urged platforms to address content that depicts “hatred and disorder” and promoted violence and misinformation.
The Financial Times asked Ofcom’s Melanie Dawes what the “strong action” may mean for X.
Dawes reportedly replied that Ofcom would “make sure that X follows the rules that have been set down in the act . . . and that action needs to take place next year”.
Ofcom will have the power levy fines on websites that violate the Online Safety Act or shut them down in extreme cases. “We will absolutely be prepared to use them,” Dawes said of the new powers.