UK asks social media firms to assess online risks by March 31

(Photo credit: Reuters)

Source: Reuters

Britain's media regulator Ofcom on Monday set social media and other online platforms a March 31 deadline to submit a risk assessment around how likely users are to encounter illegal content on their sites.

New laws passed last year require companies like Meta's (META.O), opens new tab Facebook and Instagram and ByteDance's TikTok to take action against criminal activity on their platforms and make them safer.

Under the Online Safety Act, firms have to assess and mitigate the risks of a wide range of offences occurring on their platform, including terrorism, hate crime, child sexual exploitation and financial fraud.

"Specifically, they must determine how likely it is that users could encounter illegal content on their service, or, in the case of user-to-user services, how they could be used to commit or facilitate certain criminal offences," Ofcom said in a statement.

Failure to meet the assessment deadline could result in enforcement action, Ofcom said.