Ofcom is the online safety regulator in the UK. The Online Safety Act 2023 (‘the Act’) gives Ofcom powers to require and obtain information we need for the purposes of exercising, or deciding whether to exercise, our online safety duties and functions. We are consulting on draft guidance to help services, and other stakeholders, to understand when and how we might use these powers.
What we are proposing – in brief
We propose to introduce guidance for stakeholders about the use of our information gathering powers under the Act.
Our proposed guidance explains when and how we might exercise our powers. It is intended to be flexible to allow us to consider the individual circumstances in which we might use our powers, and to inform stakeholders about the factors we may take into account when deciding whether to exercise them or not. It also explains the legal duties imposed on regulated services and other third parties in relation to information gathering, and sets out our expectations on how services or other third parties should respond when we exercise our information gathering powers.
The overview section in this document is a simplified high-level summary only. The proposals we are consulting on, and our reasoning are set out in the full document and in our draft guidance appearing at Annex 1.
We invite responses to our consultation on the proposed guidance by 5pm on 4 October 2024. Details on how to respond to this consultation are set out in Annex 2 of this document. Having considered responses to this consultation, we aim to publish the final guidance, and our statement explaining how we have taken consultation responses into account, by early 2025.
Responding to this consultation
Please submit responses using the consultation response form.
