Recommendations & Conclusions
6 items
2
Conclusion
Thirteenth Report - Preparedness for on…
Rejected
The public may be disappointed with the new regime if people cannot quickly see improvements to their online experience or understand how their complaints are acted on. As the regulatory regime will not be fully implemented until 2026, there is a risk that public confidence in the regime will be …
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The public may be disappointed with the new regime if people cannot quickly see improvements to their online experience or understand how their complaints are acted on. As the regulatory regime will not be fully implemented until 2026, there is a risk that public confidence in the regime will be undermined if it does not quickly bring about tangible changes to people’s online experience. A key mechanism for instilling confidence would be if people could see that their complaints were acted on. Individuals must complain in the first instance to service providers. Ofcom will set out how it expects service providers to handle complaints, including communicating effectively with the user, but it has no powers to require providers to act on the complaints. Individuals can then complain to Ofcom if they remain concerned. Ofcom has set up a contact centre to receive such complaints, but it is not able to act on them individually. Instead, Ofcom will review complaints alongside its normal monitoring data to decide if it needs to take further action where there are systemic concerns about a service provider. Where Ofcom does act, it does not currently have a mechanism for feeding back directly to individuals on what impact their complaint has had. Recommendation 2: Ofcom needs to develop mechanisms to provide feedback to complainants, particularly where this has contributed to Ofcom taking action against a service provider.
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Government response AI summary
The government rejects the recommendation, stating that Ofcom is not empowered to adjudicate individual complaints and these should be directed to service providers. Ofcom will analyze complaints for trends and its enforcement decisions will note where they were informed by user complaints.
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HM Treasury
5
Conclusion
Thirteenth Report - Preparedness for on…
Rejected
Effective regulation will require Ofcom and the Department to sustain the skills and people they need in a fast-moving and highly technical sector. To date, Ofcom has successfully recruited the skills it requires, recruiting people from industry and a wide variety of other sources. This has increased Ofcom’s headcount by …
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Effective regulation will require Ofcom and the Department to sustain the skills and people they need in a fast-moving and highly technical sector. To date, Ofcom has successfully recruited the skills it requires, recruiting people from industry and a wide variety of other sources. This has increased Ofcom’s headcount by nearly 50%. Ofcom has taken the opportunity to reshape itself more widely and is recruiting non-executive directors to ensure its board is appropriately diverse with relevant technical and online safety expertise to provide effective oversight and challenge. Ofcom has already experienced staff turnover, with some staff returning to industry, but is confident in its ability to attract the necessary talent. Preparedness for online safety regulation 7 The Department recognises that it also needs staff with the right skills in this area, and that it needs to be constantly evolving its own capabilities to deal with the risks and opportunities arising from the fast-changing landscape of online harms. Recommendation 5: Both the Department and Ofcom need to determine how often they should undertake regular skills audits to identify gaps, including at senior and board level, to ensure that they continue to have the right people with the right skills in place. They should complete an initial audit within the first year following the Online Safety Bill becoming law.
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Government response AI summary
The government rejects the recommendation, stating that both Ofcom and the department already have effective half-yearly and yearly workforce planning processes, respectively, to ensure they have the necessary skills and capabilities. Ofcom also has a systematic horizon scanning function and the department has delegated learning …
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HM Treasury
9
Conclusion
Thirteenth Report - Preparedness for on…
Rejected
The Act requires all regulated service providers to put procedures in place for handling complaints from users and affected people about potentially harmful content.14 Ofcom will set out, through its codes of practice, how it expects service providers to handle such individual complaints. Its expectations include that it is easy …
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The Act requires all regulated service providers to put procedures in place for handling complaints from users and affected people about potentially harmful content.14 Ofcom will set out, through its codes of practice, how it expects service providers to handle such individual complaints. Its expectations include that it is easy for people to complain about particular pieces of content, and that service providers communicate effectively with the complainant and take action when the complaint is justified.15
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Government response AI summary
The government disagrees, stating that the Act does not empower Ofcom to adjudicate individual complaints, which should be directed to service providers. Ofcom will analyze complaint trends, and eligible entities can bring super-complaints. The Secretary of State may also impose a duty for alternative dispute …
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HM Treasury
10
Conclusion
Thirteenth Report - Preparedness for on…
Rejected
Ofcom itself is only required to consider complaints from organisations about systemic issues arising from a service provider and impacting on online safety. It has no specific powers to take action, or compel regulated service providers to take action, on individual pieces of content or to get providers to offer …
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Ofcom itself is only required to consider complaints from organisations about systemic issues arising from a service provider and impacting on online safety. It has no specific powers to take action, or compel regulated service providers to take action, on individual pieces of content or to get providers to offer redress to individual users on a case-by-case basis.16 Ofcom explained that the scale of potentially harmful, online material would make it impossible for it to respond to individual complaints and it must, 8 Q 9 9 Q 42; C&AG’s Report, para 1.12 10 C&AG’s Report, para 3 11 Q 4; C&AG’s Report, para 1.8 12 C&AG’s Report, para 1.8, figure 4 13 Qq 4, 6 14 C&AG’s Report, para 1.16 15 Q 26 16 Q 26; C&AG’s Report, para 1.16 10 Preparedness for online safety regulation instead, rely on service providers to have appropriate systems and processes to take action on complaints. It told us that Facebook alone moderates hundreds of thousands of items every hour.17
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Government response AI summary
The government explicitly disagrees, stating Ofcom is not empowered to adjudicate individual complaints, which are the responsibility of service providers. Ofcom will analyze complaints for trends, acknowledge them, and direct users to support, while super-complaints will be considered from eligible entities.
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HM Treasury
11
Conclusion
Thirteenth Report - Preparedness for on…
Rejected
Ofcom told us that, while it is not able or resourced to act on individual complaints, its contact centre will be set up so people are able to submit complaints to Ofcom. Ofcom explained that this would provide a valuable source of data for itself, alongside other data, informing its …
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Ofcom told us that, while it is not able or resourced to act on individual complaints, its contact centre will be set up so people are able to submit complaints to Ofcom. Ofcom explained that this would provide a valuable source of data for itself, alongside other data, informing its triage process of harmful websites and helping it to identify emerging harms and to determine whether action would be taken.18
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Government response AI summary
The government explicitly disagrees, stating Ofcom is not empowered to adjudicate individual complaints, which should be directed to service providers. Ofcom will use reported complaints to identify trends, acknowledge them, and direct users to support, and super-complaints from eligible entities will be considered.
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HM Treasury
12
Conclusion
Thirteenth Report - Preparedness for on…
Rejected
In other areas of Ofcom’s regulation, such as broadcasting, Ofcom can take action over complaints about individual programmes. We asked Ofcom how it will manage public expectation, including the risk of disappointment that people cannot complain to Ofcom about individual pieces of online content and the risk of frustration people …
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In other areas of Ofcom’s regulation, such as broadcasting, Ofcom can take action over complaints about individual programmes. We asked Ofcom how it will manage public expectation, including the risk of disappointment that people cannot complain to Ofcom about individual pieces of online content and the risk of frustration people might feel if they cannot see action being taken. Ofcom told us that it will be transparent about its work, including, where appropriate, publishing updates on compliance and enforcement action.19 Ofcom has also developed a communications strategy for managing people’s expectations and addressing misunderstandings about its roles.20 However, Ofcom stated that it did not currently have a system for relating action it subsequently took back to individual complaints from the public and did not think this would be straightforward to implement. Ofcom recognised the importance of a feedback loop to the public and said it would think about explaining how its work relates to public concerns.21 Monitoring and enforcing compliance
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Government response AI summary
The government disagrees, stating that the Act does not empower Ofcom to adjudicate individual complaints, which should be directed to service providers. Ofcom will analyze complaint trends, and eligible entities can bring super-complaints. The Secretary of State may also impose a duty for alternative dispute …
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HM Treasury