UK Online Safety Act receives Royal Assent

The UK Online Safety Act 2023 received Royal Assent on October 26, 2023, becoming law and establishing the communications regulator Ofcom as the supervisor for in-scope online services. The Act imposes duties on platforms such as Reddit to assess and mitigate risks from illegal content and from content harmful to children, with penalties for non-compliance of up to 18 million pounds or 10% of qualifying worldwide revenue, whichever is greater.

The Act's specific duties phase in over subsequent years through Ofcom codes and guidance rather than taking full effect immediately. For Reddit, the law set the legal framework that would later require its UK age-verification measures, and it formed part of a broader international wave of online-safety and platform-liability legislation affecting how the company operates.