UK warns YouTube, Facebook and other social media companies: You will face action if you fail to prove…

Britain’s communications regulator has issued a stark warning to major social media platforms like YouTube, Facebook and Roblox: prove your algorithms are protecting children from harmful content, or prepare for enforcement action. Ofcom chief executive Melanie Dawes said in an interview with the Financial Times that tech companies will be subject to audits of the algorithms that determine what appears in users’ feeds under the next phase of the UK’s Online Safety Act crackdown.

“You may see some enforcement action from us in the next few months if we don’t start to get the answers that we’re looking for on the algorithmic side of things,” she said, explaining that social media companies would face enforcement action if they could not demonstrate that their algorithms prevent those under 18 from seeing harmful material.