It comes amidst concerns over the role of social media websites in fuelling recent unrest across the country.
In an open letter, Gill Whitehead, Ofcom’s group director for online safety, expressed deep concern about digital platforms being used to “stir up hatred” and spread content that could provoke violence.
While Ofcom is set to gain substantial new powers under the Online Safety Act (OSA) to enforce stricter content moderation, the full implementation of this legislation is not expected until 2025. This delay has left the regulator with limited options to directly compel platforms to address the immediate crisis.
However, the regulator says existing regulations already mandate video-sharing platforms to safeguard users from content likely to incite violence or hatred.
“Under Ofcom’s regulations that pre-date the Online Safety Act, UK-based video-sharing platforms must protect their users from videos likely to incite violence or hatred. We therefore expect video-sharing platforms to ensure their systems and processes are effective in anticipating and responding to the potential spread of harmful video material stemming from the recent events,” Gill Whitehead said.
“In a few months, new safety duties under the Online Safety Act will be in place, but you can act now – there is no need to wait to make your sites and apps safer for users,” she added.
Fact-checking organisation Full Fact said online misinformation is directly contributing to real-world unrest. Azzurra Moores, the organisation’s policy manager, called for swift and decisive action, warning that “we can’t afford to wait weeks and months for bolder, stronger action.”
Former minister Damian Collins called for Ofcom to take a more aggressive stance, accusing tech companies of actively amplifying extremist content.
“Communications on social media platforms that incite violence, create genuine fear people have of being the victim of violent acts, that incite racial hatred, these are already regulatory offences under the Act,” Collins said at BBC Radio 4’s World at One programme on Tuesday.
“What Ofcom needs to be doing now is putting the tech companies on notice to say they will be audited using the powers Ofcom has to look at what they did to try and dampen down the spread of extremist content and disinformation related to that extremist content on their platforms,” he added.
The recent violence was preceded by the rapid spread of misinformation online about the identity of a teenager who killed three girls in Southport.
A website called Channel3Now released a misleading report about a 17-year-old charged in connection with the Southport attack.
The report incorrectly identified the attacker and made baseless claims about his background, including a false suggestion that he was an asylum seeker and a Muslim. These falsehoods spread rapidly across social media, sparking widespread outrage and fuelling subsequent riots in the UK.
Far-right activists exploited the situation to fuel division and hatred, using platforms like X (formerly Twitter) to disseminate false claims.
Social media was also instrumental in organising the protests and riots.
Elon Musk, the owner of X, has come under fire for some of his recent statements regarding the riots, personally engaging with far-right influencers, and allowing X to be used to amplify divisive rhetoric and conspiracy theories.
The government has condemned the violence and vowed to bring the perpetrators to justice.
On Wednesday, deputy prime minister Angela Rayner urged people not to spread “online misinformation”.
“All social media companies have responsibilities as well to deal with fake news. We’ve seen a lot of fake information being shared on online platforms, we’ve seen a lot of hate,” she said.
“People have a responsibility to not conduct themselves and to amplify that but actually to deal with the online misinformation. But also not to spread that hate. We don’t want to see that, whether that’s online or offline.”
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