The UK's communications regulator Ofcom has opened an investigation under the Online Safety Act into Meta over Instagram Instants, a feature launched in May, Reuters reported1.
Meta said it "briefed Ofcom about this feature on a number of occasions," according to the report.
ANALYSIS The probe marks one of the first publicly reported enforcement actions under the Online Safety Act directed at a specific product feature from a major platform, rather than at a platform's broader compliance posture. The investigation's focus on a discrete, recently launched feature — rather than systemic content-moderation practices — narrows the regulatory question to whether Meta's pre-launch engagement with Ofcom satisfied the Act's requirements.
The Reuters report, aggregated by Techmeme, did not detail the specific OSA provisions Ofcom believes may have been breached or the scope of remedies the regulator could pursue.
ANALYSIS Meta's public statement emphasizing repeated pre-launch briefings to Ofcom positions the company to argue procedural good faith, a framing that could matter if the investigation turns on whether the platform took reasonable steps to comply before rolling out the feature.