Overview

• The Science, Innovation and Technology Committee found the Online Safety Act contains “major holes” and lacks measures to address legal but harmful content amplified by social media algorithms.
• X, Meta and TikTok admitted they would have responded the same way during the Southport riots even if all OSA provisions were fully operational, underscoring enforcement gaps.
• MPs called for multimillion-pound fines for platforms that fail to detail how they will curb the spread of harmful content through recommendation systems.
• The committee urged independent scrutiny of social media algorithms, mandatory crisis response protocols and visible labelling of AI-generated content to curb future misinformation crises.
• MPs warned that engagement-driven revenue models incentivise viral misinformation and that without stronger duties the UK risks another wave of real-world violence fuelled by false online claims.