Ofcom has opened a formal investigation into whether Meta met its Online Safety Act duties to assess risks before introducing Instagram’s disappearing-image feature, Instants. The regulator has not found a breach: the case is at the evidence-gathering stage and will determine whether the assessments were suitable and sufficient.
Instants launched in May. It lets users share images that disappear after they have been viewed. Ofcom’s investigation concerns whether Meta carried out both an illegal-content risk assessment and a children’s risk assessment before the feature went live.
What the investigation will examine
The Online Safety Act requires platforms to assess and mitigate risks that users in the UK may encounter illegal content. Services likely to be accessed by children must also assess and mitigate risks of under-18s encountering specified harmful material. Ofcom says providers should update their assessments before significant changes to a service’s design or operation are deployed.
The regulator says its first step is to gather and analyse evidence to establish whether a breach occurred. If it considers that a compliance failure took place, it must issue a provisional decision and give the company an opportunity to respond before reaching a final decision. Opening the investigation is therefore not a conclusion that Meta failed to meet its obligations.
The possible enforcement consequences would arise only if a breach were ultimately found. Ofcom can require a company to take steps to comply or remedy harm and can impose a fine of up to £18 million or 10 per cent of qualifying worldwide revenue, whichever is greater.
Meta says it assessed the feature
Meta says it takes its regulatory obligations seriously, conducted a risk analysis and briefed Ofcom about Instants on several occasions before launch. The company has said it will co-operate with the investigation.
Meta has also described protections built into Instants, including controls that prevent screenshots, reshares and forwarding, the absence of a public feed, and Teen Account protections. Those statements are the company’s account of the feature; Ofcom’s investigation will consider whether the statutory assessments themselves met the required standard.
The central issue is the timing and adequacy of the assessments, not simply whether safeguards exist now. Ofcom’s published approach says risk assessment must precede significant changes. The inquiry will examine the material available to the regulator and Meta’s compliance with the specific duties applicable before Instants launched.
The investigation follows Ofcom’s broader warning that significant platform changes should be assessed before deployment. Its decision does not establish that Instants exposed children to harmful content or that illegal material appeared through the feature. Nor does it determine whether any particular safeguard was effective or ineffective.
Ofcom says it will provide updates as the investigation progresses. Until it completes its evidence review and any subsequent decision process, the question remains whether Meta’s pre-launch work satisfied the Act’s requirements. Meta’s response and the regulator’s examination will form part of that process.
Under Ofcom’s process, an investigation can lead to different outcomes depending on what the evidence shows. If the regulator does not identify a compliance failure, no breach finding follows. If it considers there has been a failure, the provisional stage allows the company to address the evidence and findings before Ofcom decides the case. Any final decision will therefore come only after that statutory process, rather than from the announcement of the inquiry itself.
