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

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

#51

Post by hexator »

kelnos wrote: post #48
hexator wrote: post #17

Feels more and more like we're at the end of an era when it comes to the internet.

How so? This is just the UK. While the UK really does want to enforce this globally, they really have no enforcement power against non-UK citizens who do not reside in the UK. Certainly it's possible (and perhaps likely!) that the EU and US will want to copycat this kind of law, but until that happens, I think your alarm is a bit of an overreaction.

Similar laws are being written elsewhere, Section 230 may not last the next few years. It's not just the UK.

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

#52

Post by rixed »

jonathanstrange wrote: post #34
zimpenfish wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

What if a large number of brits access your websites from a different country? :-/

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

#53

Post by DoingIsLearning »

mbostleman wrote: post #40
hexator wrote: post #17

Feels more and more like we're at the end of an era when it comes to the internet.

By Internet do you mean Western Civilization?

I was gonna say looking at world affairs, it's starting to feel like the end of the Westphalian system.

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

#54

Post by aimazon »

pembrook wrote: post #46
aimazon wrote: post #36

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.

Apparently any piece of informational older than a year has no value to you? Thankfully you aren't writing the laws in my country. Creating a law that makes internet creators want to delete all historical record for fear of potential prosecution under extremely broad terms -- doesn't seem like it's in the interest of the greater good.

The law has absolutely nothing to do with historic content, it has no provisions for or relevance to content published decades ago. Even in the most cautious response to this law, there is no reason to take content offline.

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

#55

Post by hu3 »

mystified5016 wrote: post #7
omer9 wrote: post #2

So, what makes the UK Online Safety Act close the forum?

Because the UK refuses to elaborate on who qualifies under the act, and the only "safe" way to operate a website that might hypothetically be used by someone in the UK is to simply not. The costs required to operate any website covered by this act (which is effectively all websites) is grossly excessive and there are either NO exceptions, or the UK has refused to explain who is excepted.

Couldn't they wait for some kind of inquiry from UK Gov and then closed the forum reactively if it was an unreasonable financial burden?

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

#57

Post by mattlondon »

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…

It's for 7 million active UK users per month. https://www.ofcom.org.uk/siteassets/resources/documents/onli... - definition on page 64.

That's quite sizeable. How many sites can you name have 7 million monthly active UK users? That's over one-in-ten of every man, woman and child in the UK every month using your site.

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

#58

Post by _fjg8 »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #49
_fjg8 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The opposite is true. The new law makes it considerably more risky for large companies because the law is specifically designed to hold them to account for conduct on their platforms. The (perceived) risk for small websites is unintended and the requirements are very achievable for small websites. The law is intended for and will be used to eviscerate Facebook etc. for their wrongs. We are far more likely to see Face…

No, that is not how it works. Large companies can afford compliance costs. Smaller ones can't.

What are the compliance costs for this law that would apply to a small independent forum?

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

#59

Post by rich_sasha »

It's awkward.

It's clear this law affects terribly bona fide grassroots online communities. I hope HN doesn't start geoblocking the UK away!

But then online hate and radicalization really is a thing. What do you do about it? Facebook seems overflowing with it, and their moderators can't keep up with the flow, nor can their mental health keep up. So it's real and it's going to surface somewhere.

At some level, I think it's reasonable that online spaces take some responsibility for staying clear of eg hate speech. But I'm not sure how you match that with the fundamental freedom of the Internet.

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

#60

Post by baggy_trough »

rich_sasha wrote: post #59

It's awkward. It's clear this law affects terribly bona fide grassroots online communities. I hope HN doesn't start geoblocking the UK away! But then online hate and radicalization really is a thing. What do you do about it? Facebook seems overflowing with it, and their moderators can't keep up with the flow, nor can their mental health keep up. So it's real and it's going to surface somewhere. At some level, I think…

Governmental attempts to reduce "online hate" (however defined, as it is entirely subjective) are just going to make our problems worse.
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