Meta, TikTok and X have taken Britain’s communications regulator Ofcom to court over demands for extensive data about how their platforms handle harmful and illegal content.
The legal challenge is one of the first major disputes over the enforcement of the UK’s Online Safety Act, which gives Ofcom wide powers to scrutinise social-media platforms and impose heavy penalties when companies fail to meet their legal duties.
The three technology companies argue that Ofcom is seeking excessive amounts of information without sufficiently explaining why all of it is necessary.
Ofcom says the data is essential if it is to determine whether platforms are genuinely reducing users’ exposure to harmful material.
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What Ofcom Is Asking the Platforms to Provide
Ofcom has asked the companies for detailed information about how their services moderate content.
According to Reuters, the requests include statistics on content removals and information designed to show how frequently users encounter potentially harmful or illegal posts.
Such data can help a regulator compare what a company says its safety systems are doing with the actual experience of users.
Ofcom is implementing the Online Safety Act gradually and has increasingly relied on its formal information-gathering powers as different duties under the law take effect.
Meta Says Requests Cover Seven Services
Meta argues that Ofcom’s requirements are too broad and insufficiently precise.
Reuters reported that the company is challenging demands covering seven of its services.
Meta says the regulator has not clearly justified why such a large amount of information is required or demonstrated that the requests are proportionate to the regulatory purpose.
The dispute does not mean Meta rejects all information-sharing with Ofcom.
The argument is over how far the regulator can go when ordering a company to produce large and potentially complex datasets.
TikTok Says Ofcom Bypassed Normal Monitoring Process
TikTok has raised a somewhat different objection.
The company argues that Ofcom moved directly to extensive information demands rather than relying on a more structured supervisory process that had been discussed with industry.
TikTok says the regulator should have used a more predictable framework before imposing burdensome requirements.
The dispute comes while TikTok is already under separate Ofcom investigation over whether it is complying with duties to prevent children from encountering harmful content.
That investigation was opened in July 2026 and remains ongoing.
X Calls UK Demands Its Most Burdensome Globally
X has also challenged the amount of material Ofcom wants.
According to Reuters, the company described the UK requests as among the most burdensome it faces in any jurisdiction.
That is significant because X operates under increasingly strict online-safety and content-regulation regimes across Europe and elsewhere.
Ofcom has separately secured commitments from X to review suspected illegal hate and terrorist content reported through its UK system more quickly.
The company therefore already has substantial UK-specific safety obligations.
Ofcom Says Data Is Necessary to Test Whether Law Works
Ofcom has defended the requests.
The regulator argues that it cannot meaningfully supervise platforms if it only relies on companies’ public claims about their moderation systems.
It needs detailed information to assess whether safety measures actually reduce exposure to harmful content.
The regulator also said it had already narrowed some requests after discussions with the companies.
This goes to the heart of the case: whether Ofcom’s information powers allow it to demand broad datasets simply because those datasets could help measure safety outcomes, or whether each request must be more narrowly justified.
Online Safety Act Gives Ofcom Major Enforcement Powers
Britain’s Online Safety Act was enacted in 2023 but many of its provisions are only now being fully implemented.
The law places duties on online platforms to deal with illegal content and, for services used by children, to reduce exposure to harmful material.
For serious non-compliance, Ofcom can impose penalties of up to £18 million or 10% of qualifying worldwide revenue, whichever is greater.
In extreme circumstances, Ofcom can also seek court orders that could disrupt access to a non-compliant service in the UK.
That enforcement power makes disputes over information demands commercially significant.
A platform that fails to provide information could potentially face serious consequences even before a separate substantive breach of child-safety or illegal-content duties is established.
Protecting Children Is Central to UK Regime
A major purpose of the Online Safety Act is to protect children.
Ofcom has already begun taking action against platforms over recommender systems, stranger-contact risks and exposure to harmful material.
In May, Meta, Snap and Roblox agreed to introduce additional anti-grooming protections following pressure from the regulator.
Ofcom has also scrutinised TikTok and YouTube over whether their feeds provide sufficient protection for younger users.
The new legal challenge will therefore help determine how much evidence the regulator can demand when assessing whether those protections are actually working.
Court Challenge Could Define Ofcom’s Future Powers
The case is important beyond Meta, TikTok and X.
If the companies succeed, Ofcom may have to narrow or better justify future requests for internal platform data.
If Ofcom prevails, the ruling could reinforce its ability to demand extensive datasets from online services when measuring compliance.
That would give the UK regulator a powerful tool that goes beyond ordering companies to remove individual pieces of content.
It would allow Ofcom to examine the broader systems that determine what users see.
Hearing Runs Until Wednesday
Reuters said the current hearing is expected to conclude on Wednesday.
A separate Meta challenge concerning Ofcom fees and penalties is scheduled for the following week.
Those proceedings could become some of the first major judicial tests of how aggressively Britain can enforce its new online-safety regime.
No final ruling has yet been issued.
What this means for you
The UK’s online-safety regime is moving beyond simply asking platforms to remove harmful posts. Regulators increasingly want internal data showing whether safety systems actually work, while technology companies are pushing back against how much commercially sensitive information governments can demand.
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