Pro-suicide forum fined £950,000 for breach of Online Safety Act
Written by Mary O'Shaughnessy - 15 July 2026
An online forum found to be in breach of the Online Safety Act, after its pro-suicide content was linked to several deaths in the UK, has been fined £950,000. The forum, which news organisations have chosen not to name, has tens of thousands of members and is said to provide encouragement, methods, and instructions for its users on committing suicide. The site has been linked to over 130 deaths in the UK, including that of children.
The Online Safety Act was brought into law in October 2023 and imposes duties on social media companies to protect UK users from harm, which includes access to illegal content. Under the Suicide Act 1961, it is a criminal offence to encourage or assist anyone to commit suicide. As a result, content that discusses methods and instructions for suicide is illegal under UK law.
Ofcom, the UK’s independent regulator for communications industries, has drawn up a set of duties for companies who provide services to UK users to ensure their compliance the Online Safety Act. As part of these duties, companies must work to prevent UK users from accessing illegal content on their platforms.
The forum in question initially put in place a ‘geoblock’ that was designed to restrict UK IP addresses from accessing the site. However, Ofcom found that the block was both ineffective and inconsistently maintained: a ‘mirror site’ that hosted the same content was available under a different domain name and remained accessible to UK users even without a VPN.
As the Online Safety Act has jurisdiction only over the UK, Ofcom does not have the power to demand that the site, which is run by anonymous moderators in the US, is shut down completely. However, any company with users in the UK that is found to be in breach of the Online Safety Act’s duties is liable to action by Ofcom. This might include ‘business disruption methods’ which requires internet providers to block access to the site in the UK, or the imposition of fines up to £18m. In the most extreme cases (for instance, those involving children) non-compliance with the Online Safety Act can lead to criminal proceedings being brought against the company.
In this particular case, Ofcom has chosen to pursue the financial penalty route, fining the company £950,000. If the company continues to fail to comply, the regulator has warned that it will pursue a court order to unilaterally block access to the site in the UK.
As the first case to be investigated by Ofcom after the Online Safety Act came into force, the fine sets a precedent for the future of regulation of online content. This is a topic that has been widely debated, with proponents arguing that some level of regulation is necessary to protect vulnerable users and create a safer online environment, while critics suggest that government regulation is a form of censorship that conflicts with freedom of expression.