Experts scrutinized Ofcom's Online Safety Act governance. They're concerned

Industry and academic experts criticized Ofcom’s assertions about the Online Safety Act’s ability to prevent events like the Southport riots, arguing the law’s scope and causality claims are overstated and largely exclude misinformation shared in good faith. Testimony highlighted how Ofcom’s proposals conflate recommender systems with content moderation (demotion) and noted the Act’s narrowed focus on illegal content and harms to children limits systemic interventions. The discussion also addressed VPNs as a partial workaround to age verification, emphasizing practical friction over outright bans, while Ofcom maintained its role is to ensure platforms have appropriate safety processes rather than adjudicate individual content.