Online Safety Regulations Around The World: The State of Play and The Way Forward – A Resource Guide
April 2025
Governments around the world are stepping up efforts to regulate online platforms in response to growing evidence of risks and harms posed by digital communications. This study analyzes 26 law across 19 jurisdictions globally as well as in the US. It offers a structured framework for understanding and comparing these regulatory approaches, outlining their advantages and disadvantages. The final section proposes key considerations to guide future regulatory development consistent with international human rights standards.
RECOMMENDATIONS TO REGULATORS
- Ensure that requirements for platforms to remove or otherwise limit certain classes of content pertain only to explicitly illegal content, or to content which is defined precisely enough to meet the “legality” standard under international human rights law.
- Compel platforms to disclose information about their business operations which affects consumers and society, and subject those disclosures to external audit and analysis by vetted researchers.
- Ensure that platforms allow users to customize key design features affecting their online experience, such as safety and privacy settings and algorithmic recommendation systems.
- Give teeth to requirements that platforms fulfill the promises they make to users. In setting out any procedural requirements, regulators should establish clear standards to inform platforms’ compliance efforts.
- Delegate enforcement to an independent agency with limits on its authority and ensure that this agency is appropriately funded and staffed with expert personnel.
- Establish a broad scope in the regulation’s coverage but differentiate among platforms based on their service (e.g., live-streaming versus e-commerce), features, and reach.
- Work together with privacy and antitrust counterparts to ensure requirements are compatible.
- Participate in multilateral initiatives, such as the Global Online Safety Regulators Network (GOSRN), to enhance global regulatory coherence and share best practices.
Technology & DemocracyRelated
See all
Conscience Incorporated
In his new book Conscience Incorporated, Michael Posner, director of the Center for Business and Human Rights, offers practical strategies and bold reforms to help businesses align profitability with ethical responsibility.
Feedback from: Working Group on Gaming and Regulation at NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights
The multi-stakeholder working group on gaming and regulation, launched in September 2024, brings together industry, civil society, and regulators to advance informed, constructive global regulation for a healthy and responsible online gaming ecosystem.
Setting Higher Standards: How Governments Can Regulate Corporate Human Rights Performance
Our report, released three months after the landmark CSDDD entered into force, provides a roadmap for regulators and companies navigating a new era of corporate human rights responsibility.