Ofcom has today (6 January 2026) provided an update on our investigation into the provider of an online suicide forum under the UK’s Online Safety Act.
Ofcom has put the provider of this suicide forum on notice that we are working towards issuing a provisional decision shortly in relation to breaches of the Act, and if our concerns are not addressed, we are prepared to seek a court order for business disruption measures.
While no formal decision has yet been reached, we are working towards issuing a provisional decision in the first quarter of this year in relation to breaches of the Act. The provider will then have an opportunity to make representations on our provisional decision, as required by the Act. This is part of the legal process we must follow as part of any investigation.
Unless our concerns are fully addressed, we will consider using all of the powers available to us. These include imposing fines of up to £18m or 10% of qualifying worldwide revenue, whichever is greater.
In the most serious cases of non-compliance, where there is a continuing failure to comply with the Act, and where appropriate given the risks of harm to individuals in the UK, we can seek a court order to require third parties to take action to disrupt the business of the provider. This may require third parties to withdraw services from, or block access to, a regulated service in the UK.
As such, we have informed the provider of this forum that we would be prepared to make an application to the court for business disruption measures, where appropriate and proportionate, swiftly after the period for making representations on our provisional decision has elapsed, if any non-compliance we may identify in our provisional decision continues.
We will provide further updates on this investigation as soon as possible.
Update – 11 November 2025
Letter to bereaved families, survivors, Ian Russell and the Molly Rose Foundation, 11 November 2025
Update – 7 November 2025
The evidence submitted by Samaritans, and subsequently verified by Ofcom, showed that the forum was directly available to users with UK IP addresses via a "mirror site" – so the same site with a different domain name.
The mirror site was available until at least 12:18pm on 6 November and Ofcom is now aware that as of today it too is no longer accessible to UK users.
We are concerned, however, that the forum’s block of UK users was ineffective and/or was not consistently maintained, and that similar issues may arise in the future.
Our enforcement team, working closely with our technology experts, acted immediately upon receipt of this intelligence. We are working as swiftly as we can to bring our investigation to a conclusion and will provide further updates as soon as possible.
This does not change our approach to sites that have taken steps to prevent people in the UK from accessing them, such as by ‘geoblocking’ access from UK IP addresses.
Ofcom will prioritise cases where action can be expected to increase online safety protections for people in the UK, particularly children, and we would therefore be likely to do so against services which do not consistently maintain such access restrictions or actively promote or encourage ways their UK users can avoid those restrictions.
Services who choose to block access in this way must maintain these restrictions and must not encourage or promote ways to avoid them.
Update – 6 November 2025
On 1 July 2025, the forum implemented a block to restrict users with UK IP addresses from accessing the service. Ofcom has been actively monitoring these restrictions to check they are maintained consistently and to make sure the service does not promote or encourage ways for UK users to avoid them.
We now have reason to believe, from evidence provided to us by Samaritans on 4 November 2025, that the service is available to UK users. We are therefore now progressing our investigation as a priority, and we aim to reach a conclusion as swiftly as we can.
We will provide further updates on this investigation as soon as possible.
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