Experts tell UK committee Big Tech barely meets Online Safety Act
Original title: Big Tech takes a beating as online safety experts accuse companies of doing bare minimum
Refuge says trusted-flagger takedown success fell from 53.7% to 18.2%, with no Meta reports succeeding since November 2025.
A panel told Parliament's Communications and Digital Committee that Google, Microsoft, Meta and ByteDance are doing only enough to show compliance with the UK Online Safety Act. Law professor Clare McGlynn said search engines inconsistently downrank harmful porn terms on Google and Bing, while sites advertising illegal content still appear. Citing Refuge, the End Violence Against Women Coalition said trusted-flagger success dropped sharply and Meta reports have failed since November 2025. The companies named had not responded; Meta's own report counted 27.8 million adult-content removals from April to June 2026 but has no VAWG category.
Unconfirmed: Takedown rates are Refuge's figures; Meta, Google, Microsoft and TikTok had not responded.
- Refuge's trusted-flagger success rate was 53.7% before November 2025.
- Over the following 12 months that rate fell to 18.2%, Refuge's figures say.
- Since November 2025, zero percent of reports to Meta succeeded, according to Refuge.
- Meta reported removing 27.8 million adult nudity and sexual-activity posts from April to June 2026.
- England's children's commissioner told the committee in September the Act had made no difference.
- Organizations
- OfcomRefugeEnd Violence Against Women Coalition
- Countries
- United Kingdom
From the original article
4 min read at theregister.comAccessing banned content is as easy as whipping out a thesaurus, Parliament's Communications and Digital Committee hears
By Connor Jones · theregister.com
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