Platforms in the UK must start tackling illegal material from this week

Providers of services in scope of the UK’s Online Safety Act had until 16th March 2025 to carry out a suitable and sufficient illegal harms risk assessment – to understand how likely it is that users could encounter illegal content on their service, or, in the case of ‘user-to-user’ services, how they could be used to commit or facilitate certain criminal offences.

From today, the next set of illegal harms duties come into force. That means platforms now have to start implementing appropriate measures to remove illegal material quickly when they become aware of it, and to reduce the risk of ‘priority’ criminal content from appearing in the first place.

In the coming weeks and months, Ofcom will be assessing platforms’ compliance with their new illegal harms obligations under the Act, and launching targeted enforcement action where we uncover concerns.

Given the acute harm caused by the spread of online child sexual abuse material (CSAM), assessing providers’ compliance with their safety duties in this area has been identified as one of Ofcom’s early priorities for enforcement.

Among the 40 safety measures set out in the illegal harms codes of practice, Ofcom recommend, for example, that certain services – including all file-sharing services at high risk of hosting CSAM, regardless of size – use automated moderation technology, including ‘perceptual hash-matching’, to assess whether content is CSAM and, if so, to swiftly take it down.

This week they have launched an enforcement programme to assess the safety measures being taken, or that will soon be taken, by file-sharing and file-storage providers to prevent offenders from disseminating CSAM on their services.

Ofcom have written to a number of these services to put them on notice that we will shortly be sending them formal information requests regarding the measures they have in place, or will soon have in place, to tackle CSAM, and requiring them to submit their illegal harms risk assessments to them.

If any platform does not engage with Ofcom or come into compliance, they will not hesitate to open investigations into individual services. They have strong enforcement powers at their disposal, including being able to issue fines of up to 10% of turnover or £18m – whichever is greater – or to apply to a court to block a site in the UK in the most serious cases.

Further information – https://www.ofcom.org.uk/online-safety/illegal-and-harmful-content/enforcing-the-online-safety-act-platforms-must-start-tackling-illegal-material-from-today/