X Agrees to Remove Terrorist and Hate Content in UK

X has agreed to take stronger action against illegal hate speech and content related to terrorism on its platform in Britain. Ofcom, the UK's regulator for television and internet services, announced the deal on May 15, 2026, after months of pushing the company to do more. X will block accounts that belong to or represent organizations banned under UK terrorism laws and will send reports to Ofcom every three months about its progress.

The commitments came about because Ofcom found that terrorist content and illegal hate speech still appear on some of the biggest social media sites, according to the regulator's statement. Oliver Griffiths, the director of Ofcom's online safety team, said the arrangement is part of the regulator's work under the Online Safety Act 2023, a law that sets rules for social media companies.

The Law Behind This

The Online Safety Act 2023 gave Ofcom the power to require social media companies to protect people from illegal content. Starting in March 2025, platforms have had a legal duty to keep illegal content off their services.

The law focuses on certain types of harmful content. For example, sending intimate images of someone without their permission became illegal to share online starting in January 2025. The law also tries to balance removing harmful content with protecting people's freedom to express themselves.

Why This Matters

The scale of the problem is significant. Research by Ofcom found that one in three people who use video-sharing services online — think YouTube or TikTok — came across hateful content in the past three months. In one study, Ofcom looked at BitChute, a smaller video platform, and found that users could easily encounter videos related to terrorism and other dangerous material.

The gap between what companies promise and what they actually do is a real problem. Government data shows that more than one in three women in the UK have experienced abuse online. This shows what happens when content moderation does not work well.

Regulators and platforms have played out this same story before. When the internet first became public in the 1990s, internet service providers faced pressure over what they hosted. When smartphone app stores arrived, they had to decide what apps to allow. When social media took off, the same pattern repeated. Companies start with few rules, then regulators step in, and eventually everyone agrees on formal rules. We are watching that happen now with content moderation.

Other Countries Are Doing the Same

The UK is not alone in pushing X harder on this issue. Regulators in Europe, Australia, and Singapore have also demanded that X remove illegal or militant content. The European Commission has launched a formal investigation into whether X is failing to stop hate speech.

This creates a complicated situation for global platforms. Different countries have different laws about what counts as hate speech or terrorism. X has to follow all these rules at once while trying to treat users fairly everywhere. The three-month reports to Ofcom suggest that oversight will be ongoing, not just a one-time check.

How X Will Actually Do This

To block accounts of banned terrorist organizations, X needs systems that identify and classify these groups. Different countries ban different organizations, so X needs to keep track of who is banned where.

The quarterly reports to Ofcom will likely include numbers on how much content X removed, how fast it responded, and how often it made mistakes by removing content by accident. Platforms typically focus harder on the things they have to measure and report on.

X will also need technology to show different content to users in different countries. This is tricky because people sometimes use tools to hide their location online. X will need to prevent people from using those tools to get around the restrictions.

What Happens Next

Ofcom is using a mix of public promises and ongoing checks. The three-month reports allow the regulator to see whether X is actually making progress, rather than just checking once a year. This suggests Ofcom expects changes to happen on a regular, visible schedule.

The focus on terrorist content and hate speech makes sense because these are the most serious illegal forms of content under UK law. They get more attention than other harmful content that is harder to define.

X has been through major changes since Elon Musk bought the company, and it has had to rethink how it handles content moderation while dealing with regulators everywhere. This deal shows that even under new ownership, X needs to follow the law.

The broader context here matters for the whole industry. What Ofcom requires of X will likely influence what other regulators around the world demand. If removing terrorist content and hate speech works without breaking the platform, other countries may use the UK's approach as a model. If it is hard to do or does not work well, regulators may write even stricter rules.

One thing worth paying attention to: the three-month reports will show the public and regulators what X is actually doing. This ongoing transparency could end up being more important than the specific rules about content removal, because it sets a precedent that platforms have to prove they are doing what they promised, not just promise and then disappear.