Ofcom flexes its enlarged muscles on 3G switch-off and online safety

UK comms regulator Ofcom is leaning into its expanded remit by opining on the switch-off of 3G services and social media transparency.

“While Ofcom does not have a formal role in the switch-off process, we want to make sure consumers are treated fairly and can continue to access the services they need,” declares a recent Ofcom press release. So what role do you have, Ofcom, an informal one? And if so are we free to ignore your wishes expressed in that capacity?

This seems like clear mission-creep, suggesting the indirect projection of power in a ‘nice network you’ve got there, it would be a shame if anything happened to it’ kind of way. Accordingly Ofcom has set out four ‘expectations’, with the clear inference that it will be disappointed if they are not met. How that disappointment will manifest itself is once more left menacingly unspecified, even in the 20-page accompanying document. Here are those expectations in full.

“In the next few years, older mobile networks will gradually be switched-off to make way for faster, more reliable services,” explained Selina Chadha, Ofcom’s Director of Connectivity. “But some people will need help upgrading their devices during this process. So we’ve told mobile networks what they should do to make sure support is available to those who need it.”

Or else. The full document does mention regulatory obligations and commitments associated with the switch-off, which cover the following.

Surely Ofcom should restrict itself to the enforcement of those obligations and not burden operators with a much broader wish list that has no stated penalties associated with it. The feeling we take from this is that Ofcom has become emboldened by all the new powers the government keeps throwing at it and is now inclined to flex its muscles in increasingly brazen ways.

Further evidence of this was a piece published on the Ofcom press site earlier this week titled ‘Looking ahead to online regulation: It’s time to rethink transparency reporting’. In the first paragraph it states “The UK’s Online Safety Bill, which is currently making its way through Parliament, will give Ofcom new regulatory tools, including mandatory transparency reporting.” Note the presumption that the bill will pass unchanged.

So what is this transparency reporting all about then? Ofcom doesn’t seem to have fully made up its mind yet, but the piece gives some pretty strong hints. “We’re thinking carefully about what information we want platforms to publish in their transparency reports,” it says. “We may require them to publish metrics around the prevalence and dissemination of illegal or harmful content, and the number of users who have encountered this content.”

There’s that totally vague and subjective term ‘harmful’ again. One of the main reasons the Online Safety Bill has taken so long to pass is strong opposition to proposed banning of ‘legal but harmful’ content. We were assured late last year that it would be taken out but Ofcom apparently didn’t get the memo. Or perhaps it did, but was assured by the government that the concession was merely a semantical one and that it would still be free to police the internet however it wants.

“A carefully designed transparency regime could transform Ofcom’s ability to hold platforms accountable,” concludes the piece and it seems safe to interpret ‘transform’ as ‘massively increase’. Ofcom has traditionally done a fairly good job within more narrow regulatory remits but by chucking all these extra powers at it, the UK government risks letting a monstrous genie out of the bottle.

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