Ofcom is Britain's communications regulator. Under the Online Safety Act, passed in 2023, it is responsible for holding platforms to account on their legal duty of care to protect users, especially children. It can impose fines of up to 10% of global revenue for non-compliance, but in practice has behaved more like a financial regulator, working with companies behind closed doors to nudge them towards implementing their own content-moderation policies properly. Its guidance encourages platforms to focus on "high harm" content such as child sexual abuse material, sex trafficking, and narcotics and weapons sales—not offensive posts. In October 2025 Ofcom fined 4chan £20,000 ($26,000) for failing to produce a risk assessment. Ofcom is also investigating X's Grok chatbot for creating nude images of both adults and children without their knowledge or consent.
Don't talk to me about naval tradition. It's nothing but rum, sodomy and the lash.