Meta launches legal challenge over the Online Safety Act

Max Thompson, Campaigns Officer

22 September 2026

Meta has launched a fresh legal challenge in London against Ofcom over the Orwellian Online Safety Act.

Last week, lawyers representing Meta, the parent group of Facebook and Instagram, filed an appeal against Ofcom's decision to place WhatsApp and Instagram into a category subject to additional duties.

These new duties include greater transparency, enhanced user controls, measures to protect users from fraudulent advertising, and increased reporting of illegal content.

This comes amid heightened tensions between the US Government and US technology companies, on one side, and the UK Government, on the other, over the Online Safety Act and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport's (DCMS) new media Green Paper, Watch This Space, which seeks to force social media companies to prioritise the promotion of government-approved "trustworthy" news sources, such as the BBC, ITV and Channel 4, while subsequently demoting independent journalists and other more critical outlets.

Last week, it was reported in PoliticsHome that UK Government officials from DCMS and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) were hauled into the US Embassy in London and reprimanded over the UK's censorious online regime by the US Deputy Chief of Mission.

The Online Safety Act, introduced and passed by the last Conservative government — but implemented by the Labour Government — has been a cause of friction between the UK and US. Since returning to the White House, President Trump and his team have voiced their concern about the state of free speech — particularly online — in the UK and Europe, namely Vice President JD Vance and US Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Sarah Rogers.

When the legislation was introduced to Parliament, it had the stated aim of protecting children from online harms. The reality has been that it ended up being something far more broad, with the Act's regulator, Ofcom, demonstrating extraterritorial ambitions that have threatened the UK–US Special Relationship. US legislators and lawyers have repeatedly warned that the Online Safety Act has infringed upon the First Amendment free speech rights of US citizens and unfairly targeted and punished US businesses.

Under the Online Safety Act, Ofcom can fine social media companies that breach its rules up to £18 million or 10 per cent of their qualifying worldwide revenue — whichever is greater.

In May, Meta launched a legal challenge against Ofcom arguing that this is unfair and unfairly targets US companies. Meta believes that it is wrong that Ofcom can fine US companies in relation to their global revenue rather than the relative size of their operation in the UK. This was something that US officials reportedly raised with UK representatives at the embassy meeting in Nine Elms last week.

Meta is not alone in its anger over the Online Safety Act, nor is it alone in taking legal action against Ofcom. TikTok and X are also taking legal action over the volume of information they are required to hand over to Ofcom. Ofcom has also fined Kiwi Farms and 4chan and is currently fighting the online forums in US Courts, and has even claimed 'sovereign immunity'.

It is also striking to note that Nadine Dorries, the former Conservative Culture, Media and Sport Secretary who guided the legislation through Parliament and has since defected to Reform UK, has even admitted that the legislation has failed and gone beyond its intended aim of protecting children online.

What should alarm us all is that the UK Government is clearly doubling down. Lisa Nandy — a close ally of Prime Minister Andy Burnham, his constituency neighbour, and the current Culture, Media and Sport Secretary — has vowed to continue introducing legislation to govern the internet.

"I think we're going to have to start getting used to the idea, actually, that government is going to be far quicker, far more interventionist, and I think I'm going to have to see the law updated regularly because tech is changing so fast that we've got to be able to respond."

Ofcom is becoming increasingly draconian. Its enforcement of the Online Safety Act — and its extraterritorial ambitions — should concern us all.

Read more in The Guardian.