Ofcom is turning the UK into an international laughing stock
- Ofcom has fined US-based 4Chan £20,000 for breaching the absurd Online Safety Act
- The UK is coming across as a would-be bully that wants to control the internet
- When our allies tell us that we have given up on free speech, we should listen to them
We know that the Online Safety Act (OSA) is a disaster. The group it is billed as protecting, children and young people, is not only rebellious: it is precisely the class most adept at using VPNs and other devices to circumvent it. And this is even before you get to the unintended consequences. The more we try to regulate the semi-respectable internet sites out there, the more we push thrill-seeking young people to the darkest and most frightening corners of cyberspace, where they can suffer serious harm. Furthermore, the greater the pressure on the young to sign up to dodgy free VPNs, the greater the likelihood of their later suffering trolling and identity theft. Some protection.
The whole piece is well worth reading, if only as a reminder to watch how this sinister mess evolves and comment on it while we can. As for the laughing stock aspect, we were there already, this is more confirmation than revelation.
This year, Ofcom, which administers the OSA, wrote formally to American online forums Gab, Kiwifarms and 4Chan, demanding that they agree to obey UK law and file vast amounts of OSA-required compliance paperwork with Ofcom to prove it. Since none of these sites have any presence or assets in the UK (although they are popular here), they gently reminded Ofcom of the existence of the First Amendment, and less gently told it to go knit. We don’t know what happened to Gab or Kiwifarms: but Ofcom has now, apparently with a straight face, fined 4Chan £20,000 and threatened further daily fines until it complies. Understandably 4Chan is unamused. It has said that it won’t, and that there’s nothing Ofcom can do. And of course it is right: as its Connecticut lawyers said with nice understatement in their response to Ofcom, ‘American businesses do not surrender their First Amendment rights because a foreign bureaucrat sends them an email’.
5 comments:
Gab is available in the UK once more. I noticed in a post on X that they decided to call OFCOM's bluff, at about the same time as 4chan were put in the firing line. I've been using Opera (which has a built in VPN) to access it for the last month or two, but don't need to now.
Doncha just love it. Meanwhile Surkier is shaking in his Alli sponsored elevator boots because of what these unbridled US and Ukrainian information sources might release.
What is Ukrainian for a super injunction?
Dave - Ofcom was remarkably silly to try it on with 4chan, especially with Trump and Vance around. I might download Opera just in case.
Doonhamer - "What is Ukrainian for a super injunction?"
It's something like Tchusteffov.
Tchusteffov. Nice one. Got it when I tried saying it. One to keep and use as appropriate. Ta.
Doonhamer - good, I thought it probably has to be said.
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