Glitch’s response to Ofcom’s Transparency Consultation
One year ago, the Online Safety Act (OSA) became law, by which Glitch, End Violence Against Women and signatories of this petition played a pivotal role in ensuring women and girls were included in the legislation. As a UK charity committed to ending online abuse, Glitch centres on the double or multiple discrimination that Black women and racialised and gender variant women face, who experience disproportionate abuse.
Earlier this year, we responded to Ofcom’s consultation about Illegal Harms. Now we are responding to their consultation about their proposed transparency guidelines, which will be an essential tool to ensure accountability across digital platforms.
Here are our Glitch’s top asks for transparency reporting Ofcom:
Online abuse data should be based on the nature of the harm, the platforms’ responses and how the platforms plans to and invests on preventing harm
Transparency reporting should be required twice a year to align with the EU Digital Services Act requirements
By-and-for organisations should be given the resources to engage with this work, survivors and people impacted by online harms, particularly Black women who are disproportionately impacted, can collaborate with Ofcom to improve this work
Overall, we align with requirements for transparency and accountability by platforms and ‘categorised services’. However, we believe that granular data requests, bi-annual reporting, and focusing on user voices, particularly those of survivors and marginalised communities, is essential to creating a safer online environment. We look forward to collaborating with Ofcom to ensure that the Online Safety Act is implemented in a way that truly protects vulnerable users from online harm.
You can download the official copy of Glitch’s recommendations here.