September 15, 2026, 18:06 GMT | Insight
Meta Platforms’ WhatsApp and
Instagram,
Roblox and
Quora are appealing UK regulatory decisions to designate them as in the tier of services that carry the broadest extra duties under the country's Online Safety Act. Online safety regulator
Ofcom said it would robustly defend its decisions as it consults on some of the Category 1 requirements.
Meta Platforms' WhatsApp and Instagram, as well as gaming giant Roblox and question-and-answer forum Quora, are mounting legal challenges to being placed in the UK Online Safety Act category that carries the highest regulatory burden, MLex has learned.
A spokesperson for online safety regulator Ofcom has confirmed that Roblox, WhatsApp, Instagram and Quora are the four services currently appealing the regulator's decision in July to designate them as Category 1 platforms.
"On all these fronts, we will robustly defend our reasoning and decisions," the Ofcom spokesperson added.
Category 1 is the highest tier in Ofcom's categorization register and carries the Online Safety Act's broadest additional requirements. These cover user empowerment, identity verification, terms of service, complaints, and certain types of journalistic and political content (see
here).
This classification applies to all user-to-user services with more than 34 million monthly UK users and a content recommender system, or to services with more than 7 million monthly UK users that have a recommender system and a function allowing users to forward or share user-generated content.
The four services that are now appealing their designation were all among the platforms placed in Category 1 when Ofcom published its final register of services in July.
The regulator is still consulting on some of the extra requirements for Category 1 services, including measures that could give users more control over harmful but legal content in their feeds (see
here).
Ofcom's confirmation of the companies appealing their designation comes after a senior official for the regulator told lawmakers on Tuesday afternoon that "we are operating in a highly litigious environment" (see
here).
Meta, Roblox and Quora have been approached for a comment.
Please email editors@mlex.com to contact the editorial staff regarding this story, or to submit the names of lawyers and advisers.
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