In the next phase of Online Safety Act implementation, children’s safety duties and related codes of practice will come into full effect on 25 July 2025....more
Over the course of 2025, the United Kingdom’s Online Safety Act (OSA) has been gradually coming into force reshaping the online safety landscape globally. The OSA requires in-scope companies to identify, mitigate, and manage...more
On 10 June Nikhil Rathi, the FCA’s CEO, appeared before the Treasury Select Committee. The opening volley of questions was focused on the risks presented by illegal financial promotions on social media and, relatedly, the...more
The Media Act 2024 received Royal Assent on 24 May 2024, marking a significant overhaul of the UK's media regulation framework. The Act aims to modernize the regulatory landscape to reflect changes in the way that television...more
Back in March 2025, we published an article highlighting that Ofcom will be turning up the heat to ramp up pressure on platforms in relation to their duties to the UK’s Online Safety Act (OSA). There has been a flurry of...more
Under the UK Online Safety Act 2023 (OSA), a wide range of online services are subject to extensive new obligations related to illegal content and content harmful to children....more
Illegal content safety duties came into full effect on 17 March 2025, shortly followed by children’s access assessment requirements. The UK Online Safety Act (OSA) establishes an extensive regulatory framework for...more
New satellite services are in development which will permit satellites to communicate directly with unmodified end user phones. These services fall into a category of satellite services known as direct to device services, or...more
After its election to power in July 2024, the newly formed Labour government wasted little time in announcing its legislative priorities for the coming year. Unsurprisingly, these priorities included several proposed Bills...more
The first binding Codes of Practice under the UK’s Online Safety Act 2023 (OSA) have now been published, requiring those in scope to take immediate action to become compliant. In particular, it is now a legal duty to carry...more
Ofcom, the U.K. Online Safety Act (the Act) regulator, released an updated roadmap on the timing of obligations for covered services on October 17, 2024. The Act was passed in October 2023 and introduces new legal obligations...more
As the deadline approaches for the UK to categorise online services under its new Online Safety Act (OSA), where might the lines be drawn, and what do you do if you disagree?...more
The Online Safety Act (the OSA) received Royal Assent on 26 October 2023 and is now in force. The OSA establishes an extensive regulatory framework for providers of online user-to-user services and search services with...more
Online service providers with platforms accessible to UK children must implement more robust age-verification measures and reformulate algorithms away from "toxic" content under new draft Codes of Practice issued on 8 May...more
On 25 March 2024, the UK Office of Communications (Ofcom) published its research and advice to the Secretary of State (SoS) on the threshold conditions that it considers appropriate to determine whether a service falls into...more
When the UK Online Safety Act (the "Act") became law on 26 October 2023, it had established one of the most comprehensive online safety regulatory frameworks in the world. The Act's intention is to make the use of online...more
Recently, the FCC announced (here and here) that it has partnered with two U.K. communications regulatory agencies to address issues regarding privacy and data protection in telecommunications. The FCC announced two separate...more
Social media raises a novel set of risks and challenges to effective financial services regulation, particularly in the field of consumer protection and market integrity. Specifically, regulators have expressed concerns...more
On 5 December 2023, the UK Office of Communications (Ofcom) published for consultation its draft guidance on age assurance (and other Part 5 duties) for service providers publishing pornographic content on online services,...more
In Part 2 of our series on the UK’s Draft Media Bill, we take an in-depth look at Part 2 of the Draft Media Bill, which seeks to update the public service broadcaster (PSB) prominence regime, to keep up with the way TV...more
The Draft Media Bill (the “Bill”) published on 29 March 2023 will implement the UK Government’s plans to modernise broadcasting legislation and introduce wide-ranging reforms to the regulatory environment for public service...more
The Online Safety Bill (the “OSB”) is back on the UK Government’s legislative agenda, this time with an important update relating to criminal liability of senior managers. Following some political wrangling, back-bench MPs...more
This 13th edition of The Technology, Media and Telecommunications Review provides updated overviews of legal and policy constructs and developments in the TMT arena across 18 jurisdictions around the world. As in years past,...more
To help organizations stay on top of the main developments in European digital compliance, Morrison Foerster’s European Digital Regulatory Compliance team reports on some of the main topical digital regulatory and compliance...more
To help organisations stay on top of the main developments in European digital compliance, Morrison Foerster’s European Digital Regulatory Compliance team reports on some of the main topical digital regulatory and compliance...more