What is the UK Online Safety Act (OSA)?
Questions & Answer
The UK Online Safety Act (OSA), passed in 2023, is the United Kingdom’s flagship online safety law.
It creates duties of care for digital services to assess, prevent, and reduce the risk of harmful online content. Unlike the DSA, which harmonises obligations across the EU, the OSA is specific to the UK.
The OSA requires regulated services to:
Conduct risk assessments on illegal and harmful content.
Implement systems to prevent minors from accessing harmful material.
Provide tools for users to report harmful content and challenge decisions.
Meet transparency requirements by publishing reports for Ofcom, the UK’s regulator.
The law applies broadly to services hosting user-generated content, search engines, and messaging services with UK users.
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