In the context of the recent civil unrest in Belfast which permeated to other UK cities this week, Ofcom has penned an open letter to online service providers in the UK about the increased risk of their platforms being used to stoke tensions, hatred, and violence.

“Following a serious knife attack that took place in Belfast on Monday night, we have seen civil unrest in the city, some of which appears to have been incited online. This has included racially motivated incidents of violence, arson attacks on homes and vehicles, and attacks against police,” the letter read.

Ofcom is reminding service providers of their duties unter the UK’s Online Safety Act 2023 to assess and mitigate the risks of illegal activity occuring on their sites and apps.

The regulator says it is closely monitoring the situation in Northern Ireland, including the role content plays.

“We are already contacting individual providers where we believe there are specific risks around the presence of illegal content relating to the civil unrest,” Ofcom said.

Ofcom just yesterday published new measures – which still need Parliamentary approval – for service providers to take in times of crisis to quell and prevent the spread of harmful misinformation.

While lawfully, organisations are not help legally held to these new standards, Ofcom is urging service providers to implement new measures now to deal with times of crisis.

Online service provider’s are still required to act quickly to remove illegal content when they become aware of it.

In previous times of crisis in the UK, such as the riots in summer 2024, social media misinformation played a major role in stoking tensions.

Recommended reading

• X Under Fire Over ‘Staggering Amplification of Hate’ During UK Riots
• Ofcom Pushes Tech Firms to Stop Illegal Content Going Viral
• Ofcom: Link Between Social Media and Violent Riots Clear
• X Commits to Tackle Illegal Hate and Terror Content

Social media posts acted as viral vectors of disinformation, spreading falsehoods as well as hateful content and calls for violence. It was found that X in particular played a great role in spreading false information about murders in Southport that lead to the hateful riots in summer 2024.

Politicians and people of influence, including X owner Elon Musk himself, took to the internet following news of the knife attack in Belfast, reposting messages wtih anti-immigration rhetoric.

Misinformation about the origins of the attacker, and anti-immigration rhetoric, also spread rampant across social media, prior to police identifying the perpretator.