Britain’s communications regulator opened its first formal investigation into Meta under the Online Safety Act on Tuesday, questioning whether it properly assessed risks posed by its Instagram Instants feature before launching it in May.
Britain’s online safety regime sets obligations for social media platforms, search engines and adult content providers to tackle illegal content and to protect children’s safety.
Ofcom said its investigation would establish whether Meta carried out a “suitable and sufficient” assessment of the risks of illegal content on the feature and any risks posed to children before its launch. Safety by design had to be built in and not bolted on, he said. “Today’s investigation shows we’ll take action where we have concerns that providers are failing to comply,” he said. “We will of course co-operate with Ofcom during this investigation,” the spokesperson said.
Ofcom’s first investigation under the Online Safety Act was into an online suicide discussion forum last year, followed by probes into pornography sites, file-sharing services used to distribute child sexual abuse material, and platforms such as 4chan.
