Unverified: Did the UK Government Really Receive 116,000 Consultation Responses on Social Media Restrictions?
“The UK government received over 116,000 consultation responses before making its decision on social media restrictions”
The argument in brief
A claim circulating online states the UK government received over 116,000 public consultation responses before deciding on social media restrictions, lending the policy democratic weight. We cannot verify this figure. No single government or Ofcom consultation on social media restrictions prominently documents this number in publicly available records.
Why it spread
Numbers like '116,000 responses' carry an air of authority and democratic weight. People on both sides of the debate — those who support restrictions and those who oppose them — can use a large figure to make their case, which means the claim gets amplified across the political spectrum without anyone stopping to check whether the number is real.
The claim is straightforward: before making decisions on social media restrictions, the UK government received over 116,000 consultation responses, implying either strong public backing or a massive mandate that was ignored. The problem is that this specific figure cannot be confirmed. We checked government records, Ofcom's published consultation summaries, parliamentary documents, and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport — none of them prominently cite 116,000 responses tied to a specific social media restriction decision.
The UK government and Ofcom have run many consultations connected to the Online Safety Act 2023, which took years to pass and involved genuine public input. So consultations did happen — that part is true. But 'many consultations' is very different from one consultation producing a specific, verifiable number. Response tallies vary widely across different consultations, and no single document we could access matches this claim.
The figure of 116,000 may have come from conflating several separate consultations, from a consultation whose results haven't been fully published yet, or it may simply be inaccurate. Without a clearly identified source document citing that number, there is no way to confirm it — or what decision it was actually tied to.
To be fair to the strongest version of this claim: it is entirely plausible that some Ofcom or government consultation attracted a very large number of responses. High-profile children's online safety proposals have drawn significant public attention. But 'plausible' is not the same as verified, and a precise figure like 116,000 deserves a precise source.
This kind of claim spreads because big consultation numbers feel like proof — proof of democratic process, or proof of a public ignored. Both framings are emotionally powerful. If you see a specific response figure used to argue a policy was or wasn't legitimate, always ask: which consultation, when, and where is the published summary?
Sources
- UK Government Online Safety Act Consultations
The UK government conducted multiple consultations related to online safety legislation, but specific figures of 116,000 responses to a single consultation on social media restrictions are not clearly documented in publicly available summaries.
- Ofcom Online Safety Consultations
Ofcom, as the regulator implementing the Online Safety Act, has run several consultations on codes of practice and platform duties, but published response tallies vary by consultation and a figure of 116,000 is not prominently cited in available documentation.
- UK Parliament - Online Safety Act 2023
The Online Safety Act passed in October 2023 following years of consultation and scrutiny, but parliamentary records do not prominently feature a 116,000 response figure for a specific social media restriction consultation.
- DCMS - Children's Online Safety Consultations
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport oversaw consultations on children's online safety provisions, but no widely reported figure of 116,000 responses to a specific social media restriction decision has been independently verified in available public records.