Ofcom secures X commitments to tackle illegal hate and terror content

Ofcom has turned pressure on X into a concrete timetable. Under new commitments accepted on 15 May 2026, the platform must review and assess suspected illegal terrorist and hate content reported from the UK within 24 hours on average, with at least 85% of reports handled within 48 hours.

The agreement goes further than faster moderation. X said it will withhold access in the UK to accounts reported for posting illegal terrorist content when it determines those accounts are operated by, or on behalf of, a terrorist organisation proscribed in the UK. It will also engage with experts on reporting systems for illegal hate and terror content and submit performance data to Ofcom every quarter for 12 months, giving the regulator a running record of whether the promises are being met.

Ofcom said the move followed intensive engagement with X and came amid evidence that terrorist content and illegal hate speech are still persisting on some of the largest social media sites. The regulator has argued since February 2024 that online services can be used to incite and radicalise vulnerable people, including children, toward hate and violence, and it has repeatedly pointed to Christchurch, where 51 Muslim worshippers were killed in a livestreamed far-right attack on 15 March 2019, and the May 2022 Buffalo attack as proof that the threat is borderless and multiplatform.

The intervention lands in a tougher enforcement environment. Ofcom said online safety duties for illegal harms became enforceable in March 2025, and by October 2025 it had launched five enforcement programmes and opened 21 investigations into the providers of 69 sites and apps. The regulator’s separate Grok investigation into X remains ongoing, adding another layer of scrutiny over Elon Musk’s platform.

Oliver Griffiths, Ofcom’s Online Safety Group Director, said the commitments were a step forward, but said there was still a lot more to do. He linked the urgency to recent hate-motivated crimes suffered by the UK’s Jewish community, as officials across government and the justice system have sharpened their response. The Home Office’s list of proscribed terrorist groups was last updated on 28 January 2026, and the Crown Prosecution Service said on 5 May 2026 that it had updated hate crime prosecution guidance in response to rising antisemitic incidents.

For Ofcom, the real test now is enforcement, not announcement: quarterly data, faster review times and account restrictions will show whether X is changing its moderation practices in practice, or simply accepting another public commitment under pressure.