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Forum with 2.6M posts being deleted due to UK Online Safety Act

forums.hexus.net

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Re: Forum with 2.6M posts being deleted due to UK Online Safety Act

#31

Post by aqueueaqueue »

pmdr wrote: post #16
massifgreat wrote: post #11

These UK laws might boost Tor usage.. let's hope something good will come from the full censorship political tyranny in Europe.

I doubt it. I think these laws were made to herd users towards big tech's established platforms that are 'policed' by community guidelines deemed 'appropriate' and where the content is never more than a takedown request away. Welcome to the new internet. (and it's funny how everyone's yelling 'fascist' at whatever happens in the US instead)

Leave this "vile" "unsafe" forum and go talk on ... er ... Twitter.

Re: Forum with 2.6M posts being deleted due to UK Online Safety Act

#32

Post by wrs »

smarx007 wrote: post #19

Could someone please shed any light on why simply geoblocking the UK in its entirety would not be sufficient for an average forum to avoid having to deal with the Act? A lot of US websites initially geoblocked EU to avoid dealing with GDPR, for example.

That doesn’t help a UK-based forum. But otherwise, the law doesn’t limit itself to the UK, so there is concern about what happens if you don’t comply with it and ever intend to visit the UK.

Re: Forum with 2.6M posts being deleted due to UK Online Safety Act

#33

Post by a0123 »

pmdr wrote: post #16
massifgreat wrote: post #11

These UK laws might boost Tor usage.. let's hope something good will come from the full censorship political tyranny in Europe.

I doubt it. I think these laws were made to herd users towards big tech's established platforms that are 'policed' by community guidelines deemed 'appropriate' and where the content is never more than a takedown request away. Welcome to the new internet. (and it's funny how everyone's yelling 'fascist' at whatever happens in the US instead)

Two countries can be fascist at the same time.

And it's not like the UK and the US aren't known for exchanging the worst of the worst with each other all the time.

Re: Forum with 2.6M posts being deleted due to UK Online Safety Act

#34

Post by jonathanstrange »

zimpenfish wrote: post #13
nerdile wrote: post #6

Summary: The UK has some Online Safety Act, any websites that let users interact with other users has to police illegal content on its site and must implement strong age verification checks. The law applies to any site that targets UK citizens or has a substantial number of UK users, where "substantial number" is not defined. I'm going to guess this forum is UK-based just based on all the blimey's. Also the forum see…

IANAL > any websites that let users interact with other users has to police illegal content on its site and must implement strong age verification checks. But I believe you only need age verification if pornography is posted. There's also a bunch of caveats about the size of user base - Ofcom have strongly hinted that this is primarily aimed at services with millions of users but haven't (yet) actually clarified whet…

I geo-block UK visitors on all of my websites. It's sad but the safest solution.

Re: Forum with 2.6M posts being deleted due to UK Online Safety Act

#35

Post by tremon »

zimpenfish wrote: post #13
nerdile wrote: post #6

Summary: The UK has some Online Safety Act, any websites that let users interact with other users has to police illegal content on its site and must implement strong age verification checks. The law applies to any site that targets UK citizens or has a substantial number of UK users, where "substantial number" is not defined. I'm going to guess this forum is UK-based just based on all the blimey's. Also the forum see…

IANAL > any websites that let users interact with other users has to police illegal content on its site and must implement strong age verification checks. But I believe you only need age verification if pornography is posted. There's also a bunch of caveats about the size of user base - Ofcom have strongly hinted that this is primarily aimed at services with millions of users but haven't (yet) actually clarified whet…

I believe you only need age verification if pornography is posted

But if you let users interact with other users, you're not in control of whether pornographic material is posted, so it's safer to comply beforehand.

I commend you for keeping your site up and hoping for the best. I don't envy your position.

Re: Forum with 2.6M posts being deleted due to UK Online Safety Act

#36

Post by aimazon »

Headline: 2.6M posts

Reality: the forum has negative 358 posts in the last month. The forum has negative ~2k posts over the last 12 months. The forum is so inactive that they’re deleting posts faster than creating them. 8 people have created accounts in the last year.

The forum has been long dead.

Re: Forum with 2.6M posts being deleted due to UK Online Safety Act

#39

Post by bostik »

zimpenfish wrote: post #13
nerdile wrote: post #6

Summary: The UK has some Online Safety Act, any websites that let users interact with other users has to police illegal content on its site and must implement strong age verification checks. The law applies to any site that targets UK citizens or has a substantial number of UK users, where "substantial number" is not defined. I'm going to guess this forum is UK-based just based on all the blimey's. Also the forum see…

IANAL > any websites that let users interact with other users has to police illegal content on its site and must implement strong age verification checks. But I believe you only need age verification if pornography is posted. There's also a bunch of caveats about the size of user base - Ofcom have strongly hinted that this is primarily aimed at services with millions of users but haven't (yet) actually clarified whet…

> Ofcom have strongly hinted that this is primarily aimed at services with millions of users but haven't (yet) actually clarified [...]

This has echoes of the Snooper's Charter and Apple's decision to withdraw ADP from all of UK.

It is not enough for regulators to say they won't anticipate to enforce the law against smaller operators. As long as the law is on the books, it can (and will) be applied to a suitable target regardless of their size.

I saw this this same bullshit play out in Finland. "No, you are all wrong, we will never apply this to anything outside of this narrow band" -- only to come down with the large hammer less than two years later because the target was politically inconvenient.

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