How we deal with reports/queries
Once we get a query or report from a user, whether that is by phone or by email, we will acknowledge receipt of the contact. Every query we receive from the public is logged with a case number.
What happens first with your query
- Once we receive the query, we will try to help in whatever way we can. We may assess if it is within our remit, or if we may need to signpost to other organisations who might be able to help.
- In some situations, we may need to transfer your query to another organisation (e.g. if it relates to online marketplaces, we may need to transfer your query to the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC), or if it relates to a Very Large Online Platform (VLOP) or Very Large Online Search Engine (VLOSE), we may need to send it to the European Commission). If this is the case, we will make sure you are notified of this transfer.
- There are a variety of potential outcomes to your query. If we think your query is about an online service or platform not following the rules, and it could be a possible Digital Services Act complaint, we will pass it to the User Complaints team. This is a more formal process as we will consider it in the context of it being an official ‘Digital Services Act complaint’ that a particular service is not complying with its legal duties.
It is important to remember that as a media regulator, we don’t have the powers to immediately remove illegal or harmful content from the internet.
The Online Safety Framework enables us to investigate systemic risks on platforms and make sure that platforms have processes and systems in place to reduce the illegal and harmful content that the public, and especially children, may see. For example, if we note many similar complaints around a topic, we have the powers to investigate how a platform’s system operates. We can first request information from the platform/service. If required, we can decide to launch an investigation against that platform. If we find the platform is systematically not following the rules, we can impose significant fines, e.g 10% of their annual turnover under the Online Safety Code or 6% of their annual turnover under the Digital Services Act.
Queries assist with our regulatory role
We value every query we receive from users which assists us greatly in our regulatory role. While not every query we receive will result in an official complaint, this information will help the Platform Supervision team who oversee the platforms to ensure they comply with their obligations. For example, if we get a number of queries from parents about parental controls on a certain platform, we will share this information with our Platform Supervision team. They will ensure that this feedback is shared with the relevant platforms and remind platforms of their obligations on parental controls. The more information and queries we get from the public, the better we can do our job at ensuring platforms abide by the rules.