Evidence of online content for regulators: Evidence of what was published, before it is taken down.
Enforcement turns on what a firm, an influencer or a platform put online, and by the time a case is contested it has usually been taken down. With Shorenet, “that’s not what we published” meets a sealed record of what the firm published, as the website or platform served it, witnessed by a relay your team doesn’t control.
Exhibit 05 · sealed
Financial promotion
invest.example/offer
Guaranteed 12% a month. No risk to your capital.
- Captured 27 January 2026, 15:02 UTC
- SHA-256
651c7eba…567194fe - Timestamped by DigiCert (RFC 3161)
- Witnessed by the Shorenet relay
Verified · independently witnessed
Online enforcement is scaling up
10%
Of global turnover: the maximum fine the CMA can now impose directly for consumer law breaches, including fake reviews, since April 2025.
Source: CMSOver 650
Takedown requests expected from a single international week of action against illegal finfluencers, led by the FCA with other regulators.
Source: FCA, June 20253,140
Cease-and-desist disruption notices issued by the Gambling Commission against illegal gambling operators since April 2024.
Source: iGaming Business, 2026Takedown and evidence pull in opposite directions
Getting harmful content removed quickly is the point of enforcement. It also destroys the evidence. What is left is usually a screenshot, which the regulated party can challenge as edited, incomplete or fabricated, and which says nothing about what the website actually served.
A Shorenet capture preserves the page as it was sent. It is witnessed in transit by our relay, which is independent of whoever captured it, and then sealed, so removal no longer means losing the proof.
Where it fits
- Financial promotions. Unauthorised promotions and finfluencer posts reaching UK users.
- Advertising and consumer protection. Misleading claims, drip pricing and fake or incentivised reviews, as they appeared.
- Online safety. Illegal or harmful content present on a service, preserved before removal. Capturing some material, such as indecent images of children, is itself an offence outside authorised roles, so check your authority first.
- Unlicensed operators. Gambling and other sites targeting UK users without a licence.
- Your own firm’s record. For compliance teams: what your own website and promotions said on a given day, if it is ever disputed.
Social media evidence: preserving a promotion before it is withdrawn.
What it does not do
- It does not judge whether content breaks the rules. It proves what was published. The regulatory judgement is yours.
- It does not identify who runs an account. It proves what the site showed the account as publishing, not who controls it.
- It is not an archive of the whole web. It captures what your team visits, when they visit it.
- We operate the relay. It is independent of your team, not of us, and a firm challenging your evidence may test that. What trusting our relay means.
Keep the proof after the takedown.
We are opening a small evaluation programme before general release, and would value regulators and compliance teams testing it against real cases.