Ofcom has issued an update in relation to its investigations under the Online Safety Act 2023, providing information about 11 of those investigations and confirming that it has issued its first fine under the new online safety regime.

The update states that Ofcom is “clamping down on providers that ignore legally-binding information requests” which are crucial for it to be able to assess and monitor compliance with their safety duties. It cites examples of a number of providers that have failed to reply to such requests and are therefore the subject of provisional decisions about which they now have the opportunity to make representations.

However, the time for representations is up for the website 4chan, which has been issued a fine of £20,000 for failing both to provide a copy of its illegal content risk assessment as well as an information request relating to its qualifying worldwide revenue. Ofcom has also confirmed that should 4chan fail to comply, it will be charged a daily rate penalty of £100 for either 60 days or until it provides Ofcom with the requested information. In response to the fine, 4chan’s lawyer posted on X that “4chan will obey UK censorship laws when pigs fly” and that it would “see Ofcom in court”, a reference to proceedings launched in the Washington DC Federal Court “seeking to restrain Ofcom’s conduct and its continuing egregious violations of Americans’ civil rights, including, without limitation, to the right of freedom of speech”.

The update also states that Ofcom is monitoring services which take steps to stop UK users from accessing them. Such services employ measures like geo-blocking so as to reduce the likelihood of users in the UK being exposed to illegal or harmful content, thereby avoiding the need to implement the safety measures in Ofcom’s Codes. Whilst some investigations have been closed as a result of services adopting this approach, Ofcom warns that it will monitor these services closely, and makes clear that those who choose to block access by people in the UK “must not encourage or promote ways to avoid these restrictions”.

Finally, Ofcom reports on the progress of its enforcement programme to assess the safety measures being taken by file-sharing services in relation to child sexual abuse material (which we commented upon here), stating that two providers have engaged constructively and strengthened their protections, for example through the use of perceptual hash-matching technology.

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