Ofcom has today written to online service providers operating in the UK about the increased risk of their platforms being used to stir up hatred, provoke violence and commit other offences under UK law, in the context of recent civil unrest in Belfast.
Providers have duties under the UK’s Online Safety Act to protect people in the UK from illegal content, and Ofcom’s job is to make sure sites and apps have appropriate measures in place to comply with these duties, rather than tell platforms which specific posts or accounts to take down.
Here is the letter in full:
To online service providers operating in the United Kingdom,
Following a serious knife attack that took place in Belfast on Monday night, we have seen civil unrest in the city, some of which appears to have been incited online. This has included racially motivated incidents of violence, arson attacks on homes and vehicles, and attacks against police.
In this context, we are reminding online service providers of their duties under the UK’s Online Safety Act 2023 to assess and mitigate the risks of illegal activity occurring on their sites and apps. This can include content amounting to offences of stirring up hatred or provoking violence.
Taking action during a crisis
We are monitoring the situation in Northern Ireland closely, including the role of content hosted on regulated services. We are already contacting individual providers where we believe there are specific risks around the presence of illegal content relating to the civil unrest.
Previous crises have shown how a sudden increase in the amount of illegal content circulating online can manifest in hate crime and violence in the real world. Such crises are exceptional, and this means that online service providers’ usual content moderation systems and processes may not be sufficient in such circumstances. This is why it is important that service providers have and, where relevant enact, plans for dealing with crisis situations.
Yesterday, we confirmed new measures to be added to our online safety codes of practice, under which services should have procedures in place to respond to spikes in illegal content during a crisis. These measures will need to be brought into effect by Parliament but you do not need to wait for this procedural step before implementing the new measures. Given the urgency of the situation, we expect you to act now to address illegal content, and if you already have existing protocols, these should be followed.
Your responsibilities to protect people in the UK from illegal content
Under the UK’s laws, you are required to act quickly to remove illegal content when you become aware of it. Companies can use our guidance when judging whether content or activity is illegal.
You are also required to take appropriate steps to reduce the risk of illegal content appearing, and our codes of practice provide for sites and apps to have:
- user reporting and complaints processes for illegal content that are easy to find, access and use;
- content moderation teams that are adequately resourced and trained to deal with illegal content, which can meet increases in demand caused by external events; and
- systems to take down illegal content swiftly, with prioritisation policies for moderation that factor in the potential viral nature and severity of content.
As with all our work, our code measures and guidance recognise the importance of protecting the right to freedom of expression and respect the right to peaceful protest.
We are closely scrutinising what platforms are doing to comply with their duties, including the effectiveness of their content moderation systems. We have already taken action against a range of platforms and have a dedicated compliance programme to tackle illegal hate and terror on large services. We will not hesitate to take further action into services that are falling short of their duties under the Online Safety Act to protect people in the UK from harm.
Yours faithfully,
Oliver Griffiths
Ofcom Group Director for Online Safety