On 4th October 2024, Mozilla provided our input to Ofcom’s consultation on its draft transparency reporting guidance. Transparency plays a crucial role in promoting accountability and public trust, particularly when it comes to how tech platforms handle harmful or illegal content online and we were pleased to share our research, insight, and input with Ofcom.
Scope of the Consultation
Ofcom’s proposed guidance aims to improve transparency reporting, allowing the public, researchers, and regulators to better understand how categorized services operate and whether they are doing enough to respect users’ rights and protect users from harm.
We support this effort and believe additional clarifications are needed to ensure that Ofcom’s transparency process fully meets its objectives. The following clarifications will ensure that the transparency reporting process effectively holds tech companies accountable, safeguards users, fosters public trust, and allows for effective use of transparency reporting by different stakeholders.
The Importance of Standardization
One of our key recommendations is the need for greater standardization in transparency elements. Mozilla’s research on public ad repositories developed by many of the largest online platforms finds that there are large discrepancies across these transparency tools, making it difficult for researchers and regulators to compare information across platforms.
Ofcom’s guidance must ensure that transparency reports are clear, systematic, and easy to compare year-to-year. We recommend that Ofcom provide explicit guidelines on the specific data platforms must provide in their transparency reports and the formats in which they should be reported. This will enable platforms to comply uniformly and make it easier for regulators and researchers to monitor patterns over time.
In particular, we encourage Ofcom to distinguish between ‘core’ and ‘thematic’ information in transparency reports. We understand that core information will be required consistently every year, while thematic data will focus on specific regulatory priorities, such as emerging areas of concern. However, it is important that platforms are given enough advance notice to prepare their systems for thematic information to avoid any disproportionate compliance burden. This is particularly important for smaller businesses who have limited resources and may find it challenging to comply with new reporting criteria, compared to big tech companies.
We also recommend that data about content engagement and account growth should be considered ‘core’ information that needs to be collected and reported on a regular basis. This data is essential for monitoring civic discourse and election integrity.
Engaging a Broader Range of Stakeholders
Mozilla also believes that a broad range of stakeholders should be involved in shaping and reviewing transparency reporting. Ofcom’s consultative approach with service providers is commendable. We encourage further expansion of this engagement to include stakeholders such as researchers, civil society organizations, and end-users.
Based on our extensive research, we recommend “transparency delegates.” Transparency delegates are experts who can act as intermediaries between platforms and the public, by using their expertise to evaluate platforms’ transparency in a particular area (for example, AI) and to convey relevant information to a wider audience. This could help ensure that transparency reports are accessible and useful to a range of audiences, from policymakers to everyday users who may not have the technical expertise to interpret complex data.
Enhancing Data Access for Researchers
Transparency reports alone are not enough to ensure accountability. Mozilla emphasizes the importance of giving independent researchers access to platform data. In our view, data access is not just a tool for academic inquiry but a key component of public accountability. Ofcom should explore mechanisms for providing researchers with access to data in a way that protects user privacy while allowing for independent scrutiny of platform practices.
This access is crucial for understanding how content moderation practices affect civic discourse, public safety, and individual rights online. Without it, we risk relying too heavily on self-reported data, which can be inconsistent or incomplete. Multiple layers of transparency are needed, in order to build trust in the quality of platform transparency disclosures.
Aligning with Other Regulatory Frameworks
Finally, we encourage Ofcom to align its transparency requirements with those set out in other major regulatory frameworks, particularly the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA). Harmonization will help reduce the compliance burden on platforms and allow users and researchers to compare transparency reports more easily across jurisdictions.
Mozilla looks forward to continuing our work with Ofcom and other stakeholders to create a more transparent and accountable online ecosystem.