{"id":484054,"date":"2026-06-09T15:05:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T15:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/484054\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T15:05:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T15:05:09","slug":"world-cup-heightens-uk-compliance-duties-for-online-platforms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/484054\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cup heightens UK compliance duties for online platforms"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Gemma Erskine and Dom White of Pinsent Masons were commenting after the UK\u2019s online safety regulator Ofcom published an open letter<\/a> (3-page \/270KB PDF) to online service providers in scope of the Online Safety Act (OSA) regarding the heightened risk to UK users of\u00a0encountering harmful content and conduct regulated by the Act\u00a0during the World Cup.<\/p>\n

In the letter, Ofcom\u00a0announced\u00a0a live compliance programme to assess how services are tackling illegal hate content and\u00a0warned\u00a0that\u00a0it\u00a0will be monitoring services that have not met their duties under the OSA during the\u00a0tournament, which starts on Thursday and runs until 19 July 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The OSA requires providers of in-scope services, being user-to-user (U2U) services, search services, or services on which the service provider publishes pornographic content, to design and operate their services in a way that prevents users from encountering certain types of illegal content, and take down illegal content quickly upon coming aware of it. Content that constitutes hate,\u00a0harassment, threats of abuse or\u00a0child sexual abuse material (CSAM) is among that categorised under the OSA as \u2018priority\u2019 illegal content warranting particular attention.<\/p>\n

In its open letter, Ofcom highlighted how illegal content can be more prevalent during sporting events. It cited how harm can arise through content on various platforms, such as social media services, direct messaging services, livestreaming platforms\u00a0and services with\u00a0functionalities\u00a0such as anonymous posting, as well as through reposting or content forwarding, or by virtue of the operation of recommender systems and engagement-based revenue models.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n

The OSA further requires services that are likely to be accessed by children to take measures in respect of content that is legal but harmful to children. This can include\u00a0abusive\u00a0content or content inciting hatred.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ofcom\u2019s open letter addresses both the duties related to illegal content and those concerning content that is harmful to children.<\/p>\n

The regulator has\u00a0published research\u00a0carried out in partnership with anti-racism charity Kick\u00a0It Out,\u00a0emphasising the scale and severity of online\u00a0abuse,\u00a0including racist and threatening content directed at sportspeople, commentators and others in\u00a0the\u00a0public eye during worldwide sporting events. It cited further research by FIFA, the world governing body for football, that showed that when England played France in the quarter-final of the\u00a0men\u2019s 2022 FIFA World Cup,\u00a0there was\u00a0the largest\u00a0recorded\u00a0spike in\u00a0online\u00a0abuse targeting players.\u00a0Ofcom said its research with Kick It Out further highlighted how sport-related content is often particularly attractive to children and young people.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n

According to the regulator, online services can take a range of steps to meet their duties under its illegal content codes of practice<\/a>. Those measures include ensuring content moderation teams are adequately resourced to remove illegal hate, threats, harassment and abuse\u00a0rapidly\u00a0when reported \u2013 including ensuring they can deal with spikes in demand. Ofcom also said platforms should set performance targets for the removal of illegal material, have accessible and easy-to-use reporting processes for illegal material, acknowledge complaints about activity users believe may be\u00a0illegal, and\u00a0provide a timeframe for responding to them, and provide accessible information about how complaints are handled.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ofcom also recommended providing service users with some control over the content they see. This includes enabling users to block or mute other users and to disable comments. The regulator further recommended that platforms provide staff with adequate training and a code of conduct for protecting users from illegal behaviour, including harassment, that they name a senior individual who is accountable for\u00a0compliance\u00a0with the illegal content duties, and that where services conduct on-platform testing of recommender systems, providers use the results of\u00a0those\u00a0tests to\u00a0inform\u00a0risk assessments.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Gemma Erskine of Pinsent Masons said: “We have recently seen a trend of Ofcom moving away from investigating platforms that have failed to meet the basic duties of the OSA, such as putting in place age assurance for pornographic content or carrying out risk assessments, towards investigating the core content requirements of the Act.\u00a0Ofcom\u2019s announcement that it has launched a live\u00a0compliance\u00a0programme to assess how services are tackling illegal content during the World Cup\u00a0showcases yet another example of this. Platforms, particularly user-to-user platforms, should be prepared and have measures in place during this time to ensure their compliance with the OSA.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dom White,\u00a0also of Pinsent Masons, added that there is inherent tension embedded throughout the OSA between content\u00a0moderation\u00a0requirements and compliance with data protection law. He said the partnership Ofcom has established with football and policing organisations, among other bodies, to facilitate data sharing on online abuse of those who play or work in football for investigative and preventative purposes, has data protection implications.<\/p>\n

\u201cOfcom is rightly leading on a\u00a0very welcome initiative, but platforms and football bodies must not overlook the data privacy implications,\u201d White said. \u201cThe new multi-agency partnership, bringing together police, football authorities and independent monitoring services, represents a significant step forward for protecting individuals in the spotlight. However, large-scale information sharing that targets individuals\u00a0on the basis of\u00a0race, sexual orientation or disability will require robust legal foundations. Efforts to moderate racist and discriminatory abuse will also inevitably involve processing highly sensitive personal data.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs bodies move quickly to protect players and pundits during the FIFA World Cup, they must ensure that data protection fundamentals are firmly in place. Done well, this initiative could provide a model for effective collaboration between regulators, law enforcement and sporting bodies, delivering meaningful change at future tournaments and helping to ensure that\u00a0the\u00a0failings of previous years are not repeated,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Gemma Erskine and Dom White of Pinsent Masons were commenting after the UK\u2019s online safety regulator Ofcom…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":484055,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-484054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=484054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/484055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=484054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=484054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=484054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}