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Empower Ofcom to issue penalty notices to platforms for monetising harmful content on their services.

Conclusion
There are insufficient disincentives for bad practice in the digital advertising market. Bad actors can exploit the ecosystem, monetising harmful content through major platforms. Following Principle 3, Ofcom should be empowered to give penalty notices to platforms when they allow harmful content to be monetised through their services. These penalties should be based on a formula that considers: the severity of harm, the amount of revenue the publisher received, the amount of revenue the platform received, and the number of individuals that encountered the harmful content. The revenue generated from these penalties should be used to support victims of online harms. (Recommendation, Paragraph 101) 60
Government Response

A response document is linked to this report, dated 17 October 2025. Response attribution to this conclusion has not been verified. Read the response document.

Addressee Bodies
Department for Science, Innovation and Technology
Timeline
Recommendation age 1.2 yr
Report published 11 Jul 2025