Live data from Hacker News

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

forums.hexus.net

251–260 of 318 posts

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

#251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Death threats are not protected by free speech. I know you are trying to make a hyperventilating political point but it’s just not a genuine thing. I am a little surprised at the anoint of those on HN that are against free speech. I mean, don’t you realize that without it, a government you don’t like could imprison you for “denying basic facts oh biology” just as another country does for “denying historical events”.…

[flagged]

I mean, you are also making a hyperventilating point in your sarcasm not true. It may be true that illegal immigrants tend to be of ethnic minorities but it fallacious to say that collecting and deporting them, for being in the country illegally, is the same as “rounding up minorities”. That is offensive to the memory of those times over a hundred years when that did actually happen in this country. I don’t see any political enemies being “rounded up”. The issue at hand is about free speech and whether it makes sense to have a literal, without hyperbole, Orwellian approach that so many here seem to relish.

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

#252

What is the meaning of "illegal content" given in the OSA? What will social media platforms be forced to censor (, remove, ..) ... let's take a look: Table 1.1: Priority offences by category ( https://www.ofcom.org.uk/siteassets/resources/documents/onli... ) Disucssion of offenses related to: prostitution, drugs, abuse & insults, suicide, "stiring up of racial/religious hatred", fraud and "foreign interference". So o…

All you need to do is have a think about what reasonable steps you can take to protect your users from those risks, and write that down. It's not the end of the world.

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

#253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel as though the "sort of" is doing a lot of work there.

I think a more accurate comparison would be burning down a library because you can't afford the manpower to check every single book for arbitrarily defined wrongthink.

Except you really don't need to do that. Your risk assessment could explain it's read only, you've done some basic searches, and that's proportionate given the content and the fact you're a small website. Job done.

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

#254

Anyone* would be crazy to run a UK-based or somewhat UK-centric forum today. Whether it be for a hobby, profession, or just social interaction. The government doesn’t perceive these sites as having any value (they don't employ people or generate corporation tax). [*] Unless you are a multibillion $ company with an army of moderators, compliance people, lawyers.

more than just forums, it's basically a failed state now. I knew when I left (I was the last of my school year to do so) it was going to get bad once Elizabeth died, and that would be soon, but I never imagined it would get this bad. The plan for April is to remove the need for police to obtain a warrant to search peoples homes - that bad. I'd say "there will be blood on the streets", but there already is... This vid…

[flagged]

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

#255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The plan for April is to remove the need for police to obtain a warrant to search peoples homes - that bad. This seems to be limited to stolen geo-tagged items: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/feb/25/police-new-p... I would agree that this law is a slippery slope, but at the same time we should not omit important facts.

Its not a slippery slope, its carte blanche for a police force with a reputation for e.g. beating elderly people to death because they looked at them wrong (most famous being Ian Tomlison, but its fairly regular) to not have to hold back just simply because they run into a locked door. And that is before you get into the court system, which if you need a quick primer, just look at the treatment of Julian Assange - an…

I'm sorry, are you accusing the UK police of killing more innocent old people than the US police? Because if so that's a funny joke.

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

#256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

more than just forums, it's basically a failed state now. I knew when I left (I was the last of my school year to do so) it was going to get bad once Elizabeth died, and that would be soon, but I never imagined it would get this bad. The plan for April is to remove the need for police to obtain a warrant to search peoples homes - that bad. I'd say "there will be blood on the streets", but there already is... This vid…

"it was going to get bad once Elizabeth died" What do you think she was doing?

I'm sure she had massively strong views on the online safety act and encryption

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

#257

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…

You don't. "Hate speech" is code for "the government knows better and controls what you say." Yes, racism exists and people say hateful things. Hate speech is in the interpretation. The US has it right with the first amendment - you have to be egregiously over the line for speech to be illegal, and in all sorts of cases there are exceptions and it's almost always a case-by-case determination. Hateful things said by p…

But this is a very us centric view. The rest of the world doesn't tolerate people going around being violent because of the constitution.

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

#258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>What does Elizabeth (presumably the 2nd) dying have to do with anything? Lets just say her replacements brother is Andrew, and his best mate was Jimmey Saville. Should tell you all you need to know about her replacement with less chance of me ending up like David Kelly. Heads of state do matter, regardless of how much propaganda they push that they only matter in other countries. These laws are not something the lab…

I don’t understand this. The monarchy hasn’t had influence over parliament and the government for over 300 years. You may be able to point to attempts at doing so (eg the Black Spider letter), however, parliament is fully sovereign.

Kier Starmer is (pretty much) to the UK what JD Vance is to the US.

Appointed by the head of state. Meets the head of state regularly to be told what to do (wednesdays iirc).

Think about what it has taken for you to say what you just said despite those facts.

We are also talking about what is still the richest, most most powerful family on the planet. You think Elon musk is rich for owning Tesla and Twitter, these guys still own for example, England, Wales, Canada and Australia.

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

#259

What is the meaning of "illegal content" given in the OSA? What will social media platforms be forced to censor (, remove, ..) ... let's take a look: Table 1.1: Priority offences by category ( https://www.ofcom.org.uk/siteassets/resources/documents/onli... ) Disucssion of offenses related to: prostitution, drugs, abuse & insults, suicide, "stiring up of racial/religious hatred", fraud and "foreign interference". So o…

The legislation follows the general structure of the health and safety act a couple of decades ago. That also caused a big right wing press crisis, and then we all sort of moved on, did a bit more paperwork, and now fewer people die in factory accidents. It's really quite helpful to start practically implementing this stuff rather than philosophising about it.

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

#260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>What does Elizabeth (presumably the 2nd) dying have to do with anything? Lets just say her replacements brother is Andrew, and his best mate was Jimmey Saville. Should tell you all you need to know about her replacement with less chance of me ending up like David Kelly. Heads of state do matter, regardless of how much propaganda they push that they only matter in other countries. These laws are not something the lab…

I don’t understand this. The monarchy hasn’t had influence over parliament and the government for over 300 years. You may be able to point to attempts at doing so (eg the Black Spider letter), however, parliament is fully sovereign.

The monarchy does have influence [0], but no more than Liz did

[0] https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/jun/27/queen-secret...

Post reply on HN