The High Court has upheld the media watchdog Ofcom’s powers to harvest retroactive safety data from tech giants.

In February, Ofcom issued formal information notices to major tech platforms, including Meta, Tiktok, and X, requiring them to share detailed data on content and user exposure to harmful material under the Online Safety Act.

Meta, Tiktok, and X jointly challenged Ofcom with a judicial review case at London’s High Court.

The court rolled the platforms’ legal challenges into one case, in which they challenged the notices on several legal grounds, largely arguing the watchdog unlawfully circumvented the act’s specific transparency framework.

The Online Safety Act was designed to tackle the risks to users, including children, of encountering harmful content online. It provided Ofcom with extensive powers, including the ability to fine non-compliant platforms up to £18m or 10 per cent of their qualifying global annual turnover, whichever is higher.

On Friday, the High Court refused permission for the tech platforms’ claims, in the first judicial review proceedings to test Ofcom’s new powers.

Lord Justice Singh and Justice Collins Rice found that Ofcom’s information-gathering powers served a distinct regulatory purpose and that the individual notices did not legally trigger the threshold for an overarching impact assessment.

An Ofcom spokesperson said: “We welcome the High Court’s decision to dismiss the challenges brought by Meta, X and Tiktok against our efforts to gather information from them.

“Under the Online Safety Act, Parliament has charged us with the job of regulating an industry that’s been unaccountable for more than 20 years.

“Gathering information from companies is fundamental to our ability to do our job of assessing compliance with their duties, and we’ll continue to use our powers to create a safer life online for people in the UK,” they added.

A Tiktok spokesperson said: “We are considering this judgment.”

“We’re disappointed with the court’s decision, but we and others across industry pursued this challenge because information-gathering of this scale goes beyond what is necessary or proportionate. We remain committed to working with Ofcom and are reviewing the judgement in full,” a Meta spokesperson said.

X was also approached for comment.

Earlier this month, Meta appeared in the High Court, challenging how Ofcom calculates fees and fines under the UK’s online safety law, arguing the methods are disproportionate and unlawful. While in August, Tiktok lost in the Court of Appeal to overturn a £12.7m fine from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for illegally processing the data of over 1.4m children under the age of 13.