Ofcom opens an OSA investigation into Meta over Instagram Instants in the UK; Meta says it “briefed Ofcom about this feature” several times before its May debut
Context & Ripple Effects
The investigation lands amid Meta's broader dispute with the regulator: it is contesting the Online Safety Act's levy formula in a High Court challenge to Ofcom, while Meta, TikTok and X have separately challenged Ofcom's information demands under the law alongside TikTok and X.
Meta says it briefed Ofcom about Instagram Instants before the feature's May launch. The new case therefore tests whether advance engagement satisfies the Act's requirements for illegal-content and children's risk assessments, rather than merely whether Ofcom received information.
First-order effects
- Meta faces an Ofcom compliance process focused on the risk assessments supporting Instagram Instants, adding an enforcement track alongside its existing legal disputes with the regulator.
- Ofcom gains a live test of its authority to examine safety-assessment obligations for a newly launched Meta feature.
Second-order effects
- The case sharpens the practical stakes of platforms' challenge to Ofcom's information requests: evidence sought for risk assessments can become central to an enforcement investigation.
- Meta's product and policy teams must treat regulator briefings as distinct from demonstrating that an assessment was suitable and sufficient under the Act.
Third-order effects
- If Ofcom applies this approach consistently, UK platform oversight will shift toward feature-level evidence of safety assessment rather than high-level assurances about product governance.
- The outcome may clarify how much discretion large platforms retain when introducing new interfaces under an interface-neutral safety regime.
The trend: UK online-safety enforcement is moving from disputes over regulatory scope toward scrutiny of the risk-assessment record behind individual platform features.