Ofcom investigates potential Online Safety Act breach across nine platforms

Online discussion board 4chan is among the nine platforms being investigated by Ofcom for failing to comply with the Online Safety Act (OSA).

The UK regulator said it had received concerns about potential illegal content on 4chan and possible sharing of child sexual abuse material on seven file-sharing services.

Under the OSA, online platforms have a duty to detect and remove illegal activity, with a focus on protecting children from harmful activities.  

All platforms are now under probe, after they failed to comply with information requests by Ofcom.  

The communications watchdog is investigating whether they failed to introduce appropriate measures to protect users from illegal content as well as to hold records of appropriate risk assessments.

The file-sharing services under investigation for potentially hosting child sexual abuse material are Im.ge, Krakenfiles, Nippybox, Nippydrive, Nippyshare, Nippyspace and Yolobit.
If evidence shows the platforms breached their online safety duties, they could face a fine of up to £18m or 10 per cent of their qualifying worldwide revenue, whichever is greater.

In the most serious cases, Ofcom could seek to block access to their site in the UK.

Ofcom will also look into whether porn site First Time Videos LLC, which provides the pornographic services FTVGirls.com and FTVMilfs.com, had appropriate age checks in place to protect children from pornographic content.  

Earlier this year, the regulator published its guidance on age checks, as part of the OSA. It confirmed that self-declaration of age, used by some social media platforms, was no longer considered an appropriate method.  

First Times would not be the first site to face a fine for failing to have robust age assurances in place. In March, OnlyFans was ordered to pay £1.05m for giving Ofcom erroneous information on its age verification tool.