Schedule 3: Timing of providers’ assessments User-to-user services likely to be accessed by children Section 18: Duties to protect news publisher content
Subsection (2) places a duty on Category 1 service providers to take certain steps with regard to recognised news publishers, as defined in section 56, before removing or moderating their content or taking action against their account.
	Subsection (3) sets out the steps the provider must take before removing or moderating content or taking action against a recognised news publishers’ account. This includes notifying the news publisher of the intention to take a particular action. This notification must be in writing (as set out in section 236(1)). The notification must also set out reasons for any proposed action by referring to specific, relevant provisions of the service’s own terms of service.
	Subsections (4) and (5) set out certain circumstances where a provider can take action in relation to recognised news publisher content without following the steps at subsection (3). These are if the provider reasonably considers that continuing to host the content in question would give rise to criminal or civil liability for the service or where the content amounts to a relevant offence as defined by the Act. Subsection (10) clarifies that judgements about whether content amounts to a relevant offence must be taken in accordance with the approach set out in section 192. OFCOM’s guidance on illegal content judgements under section 193 may also be relevant.
	Subsection (7) sets out the steps the provider must take if it takes action in relation to recognised news publisher content without taking the steps set out at subsection (3). The notification must be in writing (as set out in section 236(1)).
	Subsection (8) specifies that if a recognised news publisher has already been banned from using a service either before the regulatory framework came into force, or after the process in (3) has been followed, and the ban is still in force, the provider may take action against its content without following the steps at subsection (3) and (7). This provision does not enable Category 1 service providers to ban a recognised news publisher once the regulatory framework is in force without following the process in subsection (3) in the first instance.
	Subsection (9) specifies the circumstances where a provider should not be regarded as taking action in relation to recognised news publisher content. This applies where a provider takes action against content that is not recognised news publisher content, but such content is impacted and it is not feasible for the provider to separate the recognised news publisher content; and where a provider takes action against an account and that action impacts recognised news publisher content that has been uploaded or shared by the relevant user.
	Subsections (13) to (15) define ‘taking action’ in relation to content for the purposes of this section. They make clear that the duty to offer the recognised news publisher an appeal arises when a provider wishes to take down news publisher content, add warning labels to it (other than warning labels normally encountered only by child users), or take any other action on the grounds that it is content which the service’s terms of service indicate is not tolerated on the service or is tolerated but liable to be treated in a way which makes users less likely to encounter it. The notification duty under subsection (2) does not therefore apply in relation to other activities by providers such as routine content curation.