Meta, TikTok, and X challenge UK's Ofcom over the amount of info it is demanding under the Online Safety Act, saying it creates unprecedented regulatory burdens
Meta (META.O), TikTok and X are challenging British regulator Ofcom over the amount of information it is demanding …
Context & Ripple Effects
The dispute adds a third UK Online Safety Act front for Meta, after its challenge to levies calculated from global revenue and its objection to additional categorization duties for WhatsApp and Instagram. TikTok has also previously contested a major platform designation in the EU, making formal challenges to regulatory scope a recurring part of the companies' compliance strategy.
Ofcom's information requests matter because they determine the evidence platforms must supply for supervision; Meta, TikTok and X are contesting the regulator's reach at that operational layer rather than only the costs or classifications that follow from it.
First-order effects
- Meta, TikTok and X place Ofcom's power to demand information under judicial scrutiny, while Ofcom must defend the breadth of its requests under the Online Safety Act.
- The three companies can argue for narrower reporting obligations, potentially reducing the compliance material they must assemble if their challenge succeeds.
Second-order effects
- A ruling on Ofcom's information-gathering powers will shape how the regulator designs requests for other services subject to the Act, including platforms already contesting their regulatory categorization.
- The case raises the value of legal and compliance processes that can document why particular platform data is necessary, proportionate, and within a regulator's statutory remit.
Third-order effects
- The sequence of challenges over levy calculations, service classifications, and data demands points to platform regulation being contested through the mechanics of supervision as much as through headline safety rules.
- If courts narrow individual elements of Ofcom's approach, UK platform governance may develop through case-by-case limits on regulators' powers rather than a single settled compliance template.
The trend: Large platforms are increasingly using litigation to contest the inputs of regulation—classification, levy bases, and information duties—alongside its final obligations.