I know that I’ve got quite a downer on the Online Safety Act 2023. I’ve followed it closely and, each time I read it, I find something else to dislike about it.

Today though, it’s a very practical concern: how on earth am I going to get to position where I can advise clients on it?

Bear in mind that the Act is not just about “big tech” - it impacts many thousands for smaller organisations and individuals too.

Here’s my problem: yesterday, Ofcom released over 1,500 pages of material on which it is consulting, to form some (not all!) of the codes of practice. No wonder I chose to read the Investigatory Powers Act (Amendment) Bill instead, at 54 pages.

How can anyone possibly think that the long tail of companies which are going to be impacted adversely by the Online Safety Act are going to manage to get on this?

Frankly, I’m wondering how I could manage to do so, and I’ve been a lawyer working in this area for, well, quite a long time now.

Reading this alone is a task of many days. Understanding it will take even longer. Working out what, if any, response needs to go to Ofcom? Longer still.

Part of me can only surmise that this is a shot across the bows by Ofcom, using this as an opportunity to showcase just what a mess a handful of lobbyists and politicians have created. To show unworkable it is going to be in practice.

But that doesn’t make me feel any better that I cannot come up with a way to review this, let alone one which makes any sort of commercial sense.

If understanding the Act, and its obligations, and the requirements of Ofcom, is the preserve of massive law firms, who can throw loads of people at the task (££££?!), small companies have no chance.

Heather Burns hit the nail on the head in her blogpost yesterday:

By the way: as you’re doing exactly what I am doing today, which is figuring out how on earth you even create a workplan to turn 1700 pages of cross-referenced consultation language into an actionable task, remember that the impact assessment for the Act famously said that getting to grips with the scope of compliance could be done in just over four hours by a regulatory professional on a wage of £20.62 per hour.

A delicious irony that one of the “harms” the Act is supposed to tackle is online misinformation.