London Court Rejects Big Tech Challenge to Ofcom

Britain's High Court has rejected challenges by Meta, TikTok and X to information notices Ofcom issued under the Online Safety Act. [Who controls social media? Regulators press Meta, TikTok and X (Nexuswild, November 1, 2026)] [Kenya proposes stricter social media regulations (Broadcast Media Africa, November 9, 2026)]

On October 30 London's High Court dismissed the platforms' challenges to information notices Ofcom issued in February. The ruling lands while the EU's 120 million-euro Digital Services Act fine against X faces an annulment case the U.S. Justice Department asked to join on X's side. [Who controls social media? Regulators press Meta, TikTok and X (Nexuswild, November 1, 2026)]

Information notices are the unglamorous machinery of platform regulation: formal demands that a company hand the regulator the internal data behind its safety claims. Lose the power to compel that data and every other duty in the Online Safety Act becomes hard to enforce. That's why three of the largest platforms challenged the notices together, and why the October 30 ruling matters beyond its narrow question. Ofcom keeps its subpoena-like tool, and the enforcement cases built on it proceed. [Who controls social media? Regulators press Meta, TikTok and X (Nexuswild, November 1, 2026)]

The European track is further along and more expensive. The Commission fined X 120 million euros on December 5, 2025, its first non-compliance penalty under the Digital Services Act, over transparency breaches including the design of the paid verification checkmark. X and Elon Musk are seeking annulment, and on September 24, 2026 the U.S. Justice Department asked the EU's General Court for permission to intervene on their side, an extraordinary step that turns a platform fine into a government-to-government dispute. Preliminary findings against Meta and TikTok, over researcher data access and reporting friction, are still open, and TikTok settled a separate advertising case with concessions. [Who controls social media? Regulators press Meta, TikTok and X (Nexuswild, November 1, 2026)]

The pressure is also spreading past the transatlantic axis. Kenya's proposed Information and Communications Amendment Bill 2026 would require platforms including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, TikTok and X to register with the Communications Authority and report unlawful activity, from sexual exploitation to impersonation, along with the action taken. Parliament rejected an outright TikTok ban in February in favor of exactly this kind of reporting regime. The bill isn't law yet. The direction, in London, Brussels and Nairobi alike, is the same: the era of regulators asking platforms nicely for their numbers is over. [Who controls social media? Regulators press Meta, TikTok and X (Nexuswild, November 1, 2026)] [Kenya proposes stricter social media regulations (Broadcast Media Africa, November 9, 2026)]