19 Accepted

Introduce duties for platforms to undertake risk assessments on harmful misinformation.

Recommendation
In line with Principle 5, transparency, the government should introduce duties for platforms to undertake risk assessments and reporting requirements on legal but harmful content, such as potentially harmful misinformation, with a focus on the role of recommendation algorithms in its spread. (Recommendation, Paragraph 48)
Government Response Summary
The government states the Online Safety Act (OSA) already introduces duties for platforms, compelling Ofcom to require transparency reports on safety-related issues, including information on the dissemination of content and how algorithms function. The OSA also empowers adult users regarding certain legal but harmful content.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government Accepted
The OSA’s duties will deliver greater transparency and accountability from providers, ensuring Ofcom is well informed, adult users are empowered, and companies are publicly held to account for keeping their users safe online. The strongest protections in the framework are for children, and services which are likely to be accessed by children are required to take measures to protect them from harmful content including that which doesn’t meet the criminal threshold. Under the current framework, the OSA compels Ofcom, the independent regulator, to require categorised services to produce annual transparency reports on safety related issues and the experiences of their users. The contents of these reports are at Ofcom’s discretion, but may include information about the incidence and dissemination of illegal content, content that is harmful to children and content subject to the user empowerment duties. They may also include information about the systems and processes a provider operates to deal with certain types of content, including the provider’s algorithms. Under the OSA, Ofcom also have information gathering powers which they can use to require providers to enable Ofcom to observe how their algorithms function - these powers should help keep providers accountable and enable adult users to make more informed decisions about what platforms they want to use. The OSA focuses on empowering adult users to make more informed choices about the services they use and the content they engage with. The OSA requires Category 1 services to have clear and accessible Terms of Service (ToS) and to enforce them consistently and transparently. The OSA’s user empowerment duties will also ensure that adult users have greater assurance of the kind of experience they will have on a service, by requiring providers to empower adult users of Category 1 services to choose whether or not to engage with legal content that encourages, promotes or provides instructions for suicide, self-harm and eating disorders, and content that is abusive, or incites hate, on the basis of race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender reassignment or disability.
Addressee Bodies
Department for Science, Innovation and Technology
Timeline
Recommendation age 0.9 yr
Report published 11 Jul 2025