Ofcom updates regulation rollout, TikTok job cuts and Malaysia's digital minister
Hello and welcome to Everything in Moderation's Week in Review, your need-to-know news and analysis about platform policy, content moderation and internet regulation. It's written by me, Ben Whitelaw and supported by members like you.
This week's newsletter is particularly 'newsy' with notable updates on the timeline for the rollout of the Online Safety and job cuts at TikTok. Even my read of the week, unlike usual, has a strong thread of reportage and a bunch of net new insights.
It's a reminder of just how much is happening right now in the online speech space and how tricky it can be to keep up. Which is, frankly, why EiM exists. Become a member or consider showing your support via a donation if you agree.
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Here's everything in moderation from the last seven days — BW
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Policies
New and emerging internet policy and online speech regulation
Ofcom, the UK’s online safety regulator, has updated its timelines for the phased implementation of the Online Safety Act. It will publish its code of practice of illegal harms in December 2024, followed by its children’s access assessments (January 2025) and protection of children codes (April 2025).
Other key documentation, such as its final enforcement guidance and age assurance guidance for publishers of pornographic content, will also lay out what online services must to do avoid being rapped by the regulator. Safe to say, it’s going to be a busy H1 for many UK-based online services. Linklaters has produced a handy visual guide of just how busy.
Reading between the lines: When comparing it to the implementation plan outlined in October 2023, a couple of things are clear:
- Early phases look to be on track: last year, Ofcom promised to publish a statement on its final decisions related to illegal harms “in Autumn 2024” - which this update essentially does.
- Some timelines have slipped: rather than publishing the register of categorised services — a tiered equivalent of the Very Large Online Platform approach used by the DSA — by the end of 2024, Ofcom is aiming for summer 2025. This can be put down to the change of UK government over the summer and the need for secondary legislation.
- Urgency around women and girls: the draft guidance for protecting women and girls was slated for “spring 2025” but will now be shared in February. My hunch is that this reflects the new government’s policy focus.
Trust and safety is at risk becoming a compliance function that shift “priorities, resources, and org charts to focus on the process for making decisions about users’ speech rather than the underlying speech rules or individual decisions affecting users”; that’s the view of Stanford’s Daphne Keller (and recent co-host of Ctrl-Alt-Speech) in a new piece for Lawfare that draws on 100+ conversations with T&S experts. My read of the week.
Keller is understandably concerned about the tick-box nature of annual audits and risk of sweeping assessments that make platforms conservative in what they carry. I can’t wait to discuss this with Mike on today’s podcast — go read the piece and then tune in later.