Thought Shrapnel

The UK’s Online Safety Act is due to come into effect soon (17th March 2025), and everyone seems to be a bit confused about it. For example, I filled in the online self-assessment tool on behalf of one of our clients, who we helped set up an online forum last year. It looks like they’re going to have to carry out an impact assessment.

Rachel Coldicutt has been doing some work, including reaching out to Ofcom, the communications regulator. The best mental model I’ve got for what she’s found is that it’s a bit like GDPR. Except people are even less aware and organised.

For volunteers and small activist organisations, it just becomes yet another layer of bureaucracy to deal with. Although “small low-risk user-to-user services” are defined as “fewer than 7 million users” I can imagine this will have a negative effect on people thinking about setting up, or continuing to run, online community groups.

Five things you need you run a small, low-risk user-to-user service This is set out in more detail on pages 2-5 of this document and can be summarised as follows.

have an individual accountable for illegal content safety duties and reporting and complaints duties a content moderation function to review and assess illegal and suspected illegal content, with swift takedown measures an easy-to-find and user complaints system and process, backed up by an appropriate process to deal with complaints and appeals, with the exception of manifestly unfounded claims easy-to-find, understandable terms and conditions the ability to remove accounts for proscribed organisations

Source: Promising Trouble

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