Explanatory note

These Regulations are made under the Online Safety Act 2023 (“the Act”) to provide for threshold conditions for Category 1, Category 2A and Category 2B services.

Regulation 3 provides that a user-to-user service which meets the threshold conditions in either paragraph (1)(a) or (1)(b) is a Category 1 service. The first set of conditions requires services to meet a user number threshold and have the characteristic of a content recommender system. The second set requires a lower user number threshold to be met than the first set, and includes not only a content recommender system but also the functionality for users to forward or share content already on a service to or with other users of that service.

A “content recommender system” is defined in paragraph (2) of regulation 3. It is a system used by a provider of a service on a user-to-user service which uses algorithms to determine what regulated user-generated content is encountered by a user of the service or to affect the way in which such content is encountered by a user of the service.

Regulation 4 provides that the search engine of a search service or a combined service is a Category 2A service where it meets the user number threshold condition and is not a search engine which only allows selected databases and websites to be searched on a specific topic, theme or genre by means of a relevant arrangement (often known as a “vertical search engine”).

Regulation 5 provides that a user-to-user part of a user-to-user service which meets the user number threshold condition and the functionality condition for direct messaging is a Category 2B service.

Regulation 6 stipulates how the average number of monthly active United Kingdom users is to be determined against the threshold conditions. This number is to be calculated as the mean number of active United Kingdom users per month over a six-month period or if a service has not been in operation for at least six months, then the number of months it has been in operation.

A full impact assessment of the effect that this instrument will have on the costs to business is available from the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology at 100 Parliament Street, London SW1A 2BQ and is published with an Explanatory Memorandum alongside the instrument on www.legislation.gov.uk.