UK OSA Section 21 — User-to-user services: duties about user empowerment
Provide user empowerment features allowing adult users to increase or reduce their likelihood of encountering specified content types
Where this comes from
Provision: Section 21 — User-to-user services: duties about user empowerment
Instrument: UK Online Safety Act 2023
Citation: Online Safety Act 2023, c. 50, Section 21; Ofcom Codes of Practice (Category 1 services)
Text version: Online Safety Act 2023 c. 50, as enacted (legislation.gov.uk)
Who it applies to
It applies when all of these are true:
- Service allows user-generated content
- Service uses recommendation algorithms
What engineering work it implies
Sample acceptance criteria Landfall generates for this obligation:
- Adult users can increase or reduce the likelihood of encountering the specified categories of content
- The controls cover filtering of the specified content types and are easy to find and apply
- Users can choose to prioritise content from verified sources / reduce unverified content
- Control settings persist and take effect immediately
- System handles null/empty input gracefully (no 500 errors)
Questions people ask
- Does UK OSA Section 21 — User-to-user services: duties about user empowerment apply to my service?
- It applies when Service allows user-generated content; Service uses recommendation algorithms.
- From when does this apply?
- UK OSA Section 21 — User-to-user services: duties about user empowerment applies from 16 December 2024. Its current status is: in force.
Find out whether this one lands on you
Landfall's pre-scan answers the applicability question above for your product in minutes, then turns every obligation that applies into traceable engineering tickets with a citation chain your auditors can follow.
Not legal advice. Landfall maps regulatory obligations to engineering work for planning purposes. Its verdicts are not legal advice and create no attorney-client relationship — verify with qualified counsel before relying on them.