Online Safety Act likely to fail due to US pushback, expert says

Overregulating the tech sector will cause global tensions, the former chief executive of the National Cyber Security Centre has warned.

Speaking to Holyrood, Ciaran Martin said: “In tech, there's no such thing as a regulatory superpower, and we’re about to find that out.”

Martin urged the UK Government to tread carefully around the Online Safety Act, adding it is “likely to fail because of US pushback”.

He said: “I'd be cautious about moving forward – and some of this is at Ofcom’s discretion but quite a lot of it is actually later legislation from parliament. The country should not get itself known primarily in tech for regulation.

“We do need to innovate securely. You can't just legislate your way to security and safety online. There has to be a whole sort of business culture about it… In tech, there's no such thing as a regulatory superpower, and we’re about to find that out.”

Martin claims the act will fall short due to pressures from tech magnates such as Elon Musk, who owns social media platform X and leads the US Government’s Department of Government Efficiency – which aims to reduce national debt and save money.

It comes as Ofcom is working  on implementing the act. Its staged approach will make 2025 a “pivotal year” for building a safer online world, the watchdog claims. Last month, it published its second industry guidance which set out age checks to prevent children from accessing harmful content.

Come July, firms that fail to meet their responsibilities could face fines of up to 10 per cent of their global turnover.

However, there are concerns that the Online Safety Act could be at odds with social media firm's content moderation tools. X – formerly known as Twitter – uses community notes to moderate content. The system relies on contributors to flag potentially misleading content. Once a note is backed by “enough contributors from different points of view”, it appears on the post. Earlier this year, Meta also moved to this model, ending its third-party fact-checking program.

Meta’s move sparked outrage from campaigners who believe these crowd-sourcing systems will allow for the spread of misinformation and harmful content.