Ofcom says it could now apply to courts to issue fines and demand internet service providers to block access to site
A suicide forum linked to multiple deaths in Britain has been ruled in breach of the Online Safety Act after it failed to properly block access to UK users when ordered to do so last year.
Ofcom, the online regulator, said it could now apply to the courts to issue fines and demand internet service providers block access to the site in the UK. This will depend on how the site responds over the next 10 days.
Coroners have been raising concerns about the links between the forum and suicides in the UK since at least 2019, campaigners said. The family of 17-year-old Vlad Nikolin-Caisley, from Southampton, said he took his own life in 2024 after using the site, which Ofcom is not naming.
Ofcom launched an investigation in April last year as encouraging or assisting suicide is a criminal offence in the UK.
