UK OSA Section 72 — Duties about democratic content (Category 1 services)
Category 1 services must protect content of democratic importance and have particular regard to free expression when making content moderation decisions about political and public interest content
Where this comes from
Provision: Section 72 — Duties about democratic content (Category 1 services)
Instrument: UK Online Safety Act 2023
Citation: Online Safety Act 2023, c. 50, Section 72; Section 17(5) (Meaning of content of democratic importance)
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:
- Content identified as of democratic importance (government policy, elections, referendums, political debate, public interest) is flagged for senior human review rather than automated removal
- The reviewer records a documented free-expression balancing decision before any restriction
- Democratically important content is not removed or restricted unless it is illegal or poses a real and imminent risk of harm
- An appeal path exists that is biased toward reinstatement for wrongly-actioned democratic content
- System handles null/empty input gracefully (no 500 errors)
Questions people ask
- Does UK OSA Section 72 — Duties about democratic content (Category 1 services) apply to my service?
- It applies when Service allows user-generated content; Service uses recommendation algorithms.
- From when does this apply?
- UK OSA Section 72 — Duties about democratic content (Category 1 services) 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.