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On 29 July the Court of Appeal allowed a summary judgment appeal by the defendant, Matt Hancock, a former Member of Parliament (MP), disallowing the decision of High Court judge Mrs Justice Collins Rice (the Judge) that the claim for libel by former MP, Andrew Bridgen, was unsuitable for a summary judgment in Mr Hancock's favour on the basis of an honest opinion defence under section 3 of the Defamation Act 2013, and that it should proceed to trial. Mr Bridgen had posted a tweet (the Tweet) on 11 January 2023 linking to an article by Dr Joshua Guetzkow concerning the adverse effects of Covid...

The UK’s online safety regulator, Ofcom, has proposed nearly 40 measures requiring the largest social media and search services to strengthen their systems against paid fraudulent advertising. The draft codes of practice would implement the additional duties in sections 38 and 39 of the Online Safety Act 2023 (OSA) for Category 1 and Category 2A services respectively. Their central feature is a shift from post-publication removal towards controls spanning advertiser access, ad creation and placement. The proposals cover advertiser verification, account security, moderation, complaints, governance...

On 9 June 2026, Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator, confirmed a new set of crisis response measures that will be incorporated into its Illegal Content Codes of Practice and Protection of Children Codes of Practice under the Online Safety Act 2023 (OSA). The measures form part of Ofcom’s wider implementation of the OSA and are designed to strengthen how certain online platforms respond when exceptional events generate a rapid increase in illegal content or content harmful to children, particularly where online activity poses a threat to public safety. Ofcom has adopted...

Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator, has imposed a GBP 950 000 penalty on the provider of an online suicide discussion forum for continuing failures under the Online Safety Act 2023 (OSA). The decision marks a further expansion of the OSA enforcement beyond pornography and age-assurance obligations (see IRIS 2026-1:1/25, IRIS 2026-3:1/10 and IRIS 2026-4:1/3) into the Act’s illegal-content duties concerning content that may encourage or assist suicide. Ofcom has not named the forum or provider because of the nature of the service. The regulator says the forum had been cited in connection...

On 18 March 2026 the government published its Report on Copyright and Artificial Intelligence (the Report), which follows a consultation that ran from 17 December 2024 to 25 February 2025. Under section 136 of the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 (the Act), the Secretary of State for DSIT and DCMS must, before the end of the period of nine months starting from the day on which the Act was passed (19 June 2025), prepare and publish a report on the use of copyright works in the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems, and present this report to parliament. The consultation received 11...