Social media's role in the UK riots (OSA amendments)

This 19-page policy paper from the Center for Countering Digital Hate addresses the role social media platforms played in the riots that spread across the UK in the summer of 2024, arguing that online hate and misinformation, particularly anti-Muslim content, helped fuel the unrest.

Rather than presenting new original data collection, the paper builds on CCDH's related research into platforms such as X and Telegram during the riots and frames its argument around policy response, contending that existing regulatory tools were insufficient to curb the spread of inflammatory content in real time.

The paper puts forward three main recommendations for strengthening the UK's Online Safety Act: granting regulators new powers to act against misinformation, removing financial incentives that reward the spread of hateful content, and requiring platforms to adopt safety-by-design principles in how their systems are built and operated.