Meta, TikTok and X lose their High Court fight against Ofcom and must hand over data on harmful content seen by children

Lord Justice Singh and Mrs Justice Collins Rice ruled against all three platforms on Friday, rejecting claims that Ofcom's data demands were unlawful or "irrational." The judges concluded the companies had failed to demonstrate that compliance would be unreasonably burdensome, opening the door for Ofcom to gather extensive moderation metrics under the Online Safety Act 2023.

Platforms must now supply data on user activity by age group, volumes of removed content, and how many children were exposed to harmful material.

Lawyers for Meta, TikTok and X told the court the data would cost 'millions of pounds' to collect and amounted to the most onerous regulatory requirements the companies had ever faced.

Ofcom has powers to penalise companies up to 10% of global turnover for serious breaches — and Meta faces a separate, potentially larger case over how those fines are calculated.