Ofcom has confirmed that the process of repealing the Video Sharing Platform (“VSP”) regime has begun, giving six months’ notice before the earliest date on which the VSP regime will be repealed and all pre-existing VSPs currently subject to transitional arrangements will be regulated under the Online Safety Act 2023 (“OSA”).

As we have discussed previously (see here), the passage of the OSA meant that the VSP regime – a series of rules implemented in 2020 under Part 4B of the Communications Act 2023 which applied to online services that allowed users to upload and share videos with the public – would ultimately be replaced.

On 10 January 2024, all VSPs that were subject to the VSP regime (so-called ‘pre-existing VSPs’) entered a ‘transition period’, during which they would continue to be regulated by Ofcom and have to comply with the VSP regime, but would be exempt from having to comply with most duties under the OSA. For those VSPs that were a separatable part of a larger service which was within the scope of the OSA, the non-VSP part of the service would be regulated under the OSA, as would those services that notified Ofcom after 10 January 2024.

Under the transitional arrangements, pre-existing VSPs were still subject to some duties under the OSA, such as the online safety fees notification requirements of Section 83 of the OSA. However, as fees are not payable in relation to a transitional charging year, only when the transition period ends will the fees regime of the OSA apply to pre-existing VSPs in the same way as other providers or regulated services under the OSA.

Since 2 September 2024, VSPs have also been required to carry out risk assessments of their services in line with the OSA. These include illegal harms and children’s access risk assessments, and must be completed within three months of the date of the publication of the associated guidance.

2 September 2024 was also the date on which the Government chose to comply with its obligation under the OSA to give at least six months’ notice for the repeal of the VSP regime. This means that the VSP regime will be repealed no sooner than 2 March 2025, although the precise date will be announced by the Secretary of State (and Ofcom expects that it will follow the coming into force of its codes for protection of children). Once the VSP regime is repealed, the transition period will end and all pre-existing VSPs will become fully subject to the OSA.

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