Search results for: online harms

Organisations face fines of up to 10% of annual global turnover or £18 million (whichever the greater) for failure to comply.

By Gail Crawford, Rachael Astin, Alain Traill, and Katie Henshall

On 15 December 2020, the UK government published its full response to the Online Harms White Paper consultation, which sets out final proposals for the new regulatory regime. The response confirms that companies in scope will face a range of new obligations relating to both illegal and harmful content, in addition to the threat of significant fines and other sanctions in the event of non-compliance. The proposed regulatory framework will be introduced in 2021 in the form of the Online Safety Bill.

The response comes more than a year and a half after the Home Office and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) first published the Online Harms White Paper in April 2019, which proposed a new compliance and enforcement regime to tackle online harms. In February 2020, the government set out preliminary details of the proposed regulatory regime as an initial response to the white paper. For background to this consultation, see Latham’s previous blog posts (White Paper launch; government interim response).

Update confirms the introduction of an active “duty of care” and a dedicated regulator, as part of a comprehensive new online regulatory regime.

By Alain Traill, Rachael Astin, Gail E. Crawford, and Patrick Mitchell

Following a wave of commentary from industry, the social sector, and other organisations, on 11 February 2020 the UK government set out preliminary details of a new regulatory regime to govern content posted on online platforms. The details were released in an initial response to last year’s online harms white paper, with a full response expected this spring. While some changes have been made to the white paper proposals, seemingly in response to concerns raised by industry and other stakeholders, the government has confirmed that it will introduce an active “duty of care” on organisations to prevent certain content from appearing on their platforms.

The proposed new regime mirrors similar steps taken in other jurisdictions, e.g., Australia, to protect against harmful content online. It is also in-line with the direction of travel of platform regulation at a European level, taking into account, for example, changes to the AVMS Directive (EU) 2018/1808 (AVMSD) to regulate video-sharing platform services (VSPs) in relation to protection of minors and harmful content, and the planned EU Digital Services Act, which is likely to introduce changes to EU law regarding the liability of platform providers for content posted using their services.

UK publishes White Paper with hard-hitting regulatory proposals to tackle online harms.

By Alain Traill, Stuart Davis, Andrew Moyle, Deborah Kirk and Gail Crawford

On 8 April 2019, the Home Office and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) published an “Online Harms White Paper”, proposing a new compliance and enforcement regime intended to combat online harms. The regime is designed to force online platforms to move away from self-regulation and sets out a legal framework to tackle users’ illegal and socially harmful activity. Although the regime appears to target larger social media platforms, the proposals technically extend to all organisations that provide online platforms allowing user interaction or user-generated content (not limited to social media companies or even ‘service providers’ in the traditional sense) and set out a potentially onerous and punitive compliance and enforcement regime for a broad set of online providers.

Elevated view of London financial district at dusk

In the next phase of Online Safety Act implementation, children’s safety duties and related codes of practice will come into full effect on 25 July 2025.

By Gail Crawford, Fiona Maclean, Alain Traill, Calum Docherty, Edgar Lee, and Amy Smyth

The UK Online Safety Act (OSA) establishes an extensive regulatory framework designed to protect children and adults online by phasing in duties of care on covered service providers, including duties to prevent the spread of…

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Illegal content safety duties came into full effect on 17 March 2025, shortly followed by children’s access assessment requirements.

By Gail E. Crawford, Fiona M. Maclean, Alain Traill, Calum Docherty, Edgar Lee, and Amy Smyth

The UK Online Safety Act (OSA) establishes an extensive regulatory framework for providers of online user-to-user services and search services with links to the UK, catching a large number of digital platforms and services. The OSA applies to both UK…

The bill has been introduced into the UK’s Parliament with various amendments to the initial draft published in May 2021, reflecting the extensive feedback received and the challenges in reaching a consensus.

By Gail Crawford, Deborah Kirk, Elva Cullen, Alain Traill, and Victoria Wan

In March 2022, the UK government formally introduced the amended Online Safety Bill into Parliament (the Bill). The Bill features a number of substantial amendments to the government’s initial draft of the Online Safety Bill published in May 2021 (the Draft Bill), as explored below. For background on the broader development of the Online Safety Bill, see Latham & Watkins’ blog series, including a post summarising the Draft Bill.

The proposals includes fines for non-compliance of up to the greater of £18 million or 10% of a provider’s annual global revenue.

By Gail Crawford, Rachael Astin, Alain Traill, Katie Henshall, and Amy Smyth

On 12 May 2021, the UK government published the Online Safety Bill (the Bill), which aims to establish a new regulatory regime to address illegal and harmful content online, including fines and other sanctions in the event of non-compliance. While further developments and guidance are expected, the proposed regime seemingly will have significant implications for in-scope user-to-user services and search engines.

The Bill follows the publication of the Online Harms White Paper by the Home Office and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport in April 2019. An initial government response to the consultation was published in February 2020, and a full government response in December 2020. (For more information, see Latham’s blog posts on the White Paper launch; government interim response; and government full response).