Ofcom investigates Meta over Instagram Instants feature
Ofcom has launched an investigation into Meta to determine if the company violated UK online safety laws by failing to conduct proper risk assessments before launching Instagram's Instants feature. The regulator alleges that Meta did not adequately evaluate the risks of the disappearing image tool regarding illegal content and child safety, despite Meta's claims of having briefed the authority. This probe occurs while Meta, TikTok, and X are simultaneously challenging Ofcom's enforcement powers through judicial review.
- ▪Ofcom is investigating whether Meta breached the UK's Online Safety Act by not performing suitable risk assessments for the Instagram Instants feature.
- ▪Instagram Instants, launched in May, allows users to share disappearing images with close friends and includes protections like preventing screenshots for teen accounts.
- ▪Meta stated that it conducted a risk analysis and briefed Ofcom multiple times before the feature's launch, and it intends to cooperate with the investigation.
- ▪Ofcom's enforcement director emphasized that significant platform changes must be risk-assessed before launch to protect users, particularly children.
- ▪Meta, TikTok, and X are currently seeking judicial review to challenge Ofcom's enforcement of the Online Safety Act and its information requests.
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| Original publisher | BBC News — Tech |
| Canonical URL | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cq8jzyey8e2ro?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss |
| Publication time | Tue, 06 Oct 2026 09:04:02 GMT |
| Retrieval time | 2026-10-06T09:08:47.510Z |
| Last seen | 2026-10-06T09:08:47.510Z |
| Headline source | Publisher (no WeSearch rewrite) |
| Excerpt source | publisher body |
| Excerpt method | First ~120 words (~800 chars) of extracted publisher body, fair-use limited. |
| Summary | WeSearch · cerebras-chat (WeSearch summarizer) |
| Summary source text | contentText |
| Citation coverage | Summary is a WeSearch-generated derivative; primary citation is the original publisher URL. |
| Cluster | yvlWg-DZ8kiV · 3 stories |
| Cluster logic | Grouped by semantic title/content similarity across sources within a rolling window. Same-publisher template collisions are excluded from coverage comparison. |
| Ranking reason | Story pages are not engagement-ranked. Hub feeds use recency, with optional source-diversified chronological ordering (cap consecutive stories per source). No personalized ranking. |
| Publisher visit | Yes — open original |
| Substitutes article? | No — link-out required for full text |
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| Indexing | May the item be indexed (stored, ranked, made findable)? | Allowed |
| Snippet | May a short excerpt of the publisher's text be shown? | Allowed |
| AI summary | May WeSearch generate its own short summary of the article? | Limited |
| Retrieval / RAG | May the content be exposed for third-party retrieval-augmented generation? | Not asserted |
| Model training | May the content be used to train AI models? | Not asserted |
| Commercial reuse | May the content be reused commercially? | Not permitted |
Basis: Derived from the published RSS/Atom feed. Contact: [email protected]. Reviewed: 2026-07-24.
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Ofcom investigates Meta over Instagram Instants featureImage source, Getty ImagesByLiv McMahonTechnology reporterPublishedJust nowOfcom is investigating whether Meta breached its duties under the UK's online safety laws with the launch of its "Instants" feature on Instagram.The tool - allowing users to take and share an instant image with close friends, that disappears once viewed - was launched on Meta's photo-sharing app in May as "a new way to share photos in the moment".But the regulator said the social media giant had not properly assessed risks posed by the feature prior to launching it - something it is required to do under the UK's Online Safety Act (OSA).A Meta spokesperson said in a statement that it "takes its regulatory obligations under the Online Safety Act seriously"."We…
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