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Ofcom fines 4chan £20K and counting for violating UK's Online Safety Act

theregister.com

71–80 of 260 posts

Re: Ofcom fines 4chan £20K and counting for violating UK's Online Safety Act

#71
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assume it's mostly symbolic and/or serving some greater legal purpose.

Threatening with prison or a fine of double digit millions of pounds doesn't seem very symbolic.

It’s quite literally the perfect example of symbolic action.

Re: Ofcom fines 4chan £20K and counting for violating UK's Online Safety Act

#72
post #49

Many people are saying this is symbolic and cannot be enforced. Unfortunately, that's just not true. Look at what happened to the founder of Telegram. Some jurisdiction decides you're violating their laws, all you need to do is catch a connecting flight or take a vacation on their soil or a place that will eagerly extradite, and you're a political prisoner. What happens if one of the officers of 4Chan or Gab is on a…

It has been known that certain middle east countries force passengers crafts to divert and land to get their hands on wanted people

I'm pretty sure the US and Europe do this as well, Evo Morales grounding incident:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evo_Morales_grounding_incident

Re: Ofcom fines 4chan £20K and counting for violating UK's Online Safety Act

#73
post #65

I was not aware of the main driver, not mentioned, sanctioned suicide even existing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanctioned_Suicide

Now that they banned discussing suicide online I'm sure the number of suicides will plummet.

You know, I'd like to actually know the answer to the question you're posing there. Does discussing suicide increase the overall rate, is it neutral -- or does it even decrease it? The Samaritans are usually regarded as a net public benefit, though they tend not to encourage people to go through with it, whereas the Wikipedia link suggests that the users of that forum have some kind of fetish for it.

I would also expect to find that the effect of internet was minimal (in my case because I think the drivers of suicide are mostly socioeconomic), but I'd really like to see a proper study. I'm also aware that there is quite a lot of peer-reviewed evidence that pro-anorexia websites do actually cause harm, and there's an obvious parallel to be drawn.

Re: Ofcom fines 4chan £20K and counting for violating UK's Online Safety Act

#74
What do they seek to accomplish here? There is strong precedent for the US defending the 1st amendment against foreign interests. No UK bureaucrats are going to make a career out of this. Going after a company that can defend itself and can't be intimidated, will prevent them from bluffing successfully against smaller companies, who could realistically be intimidated. If I were working at Ofcom, I would stay away from the large US sites with access to good legal counsel, and instead try to intimidate the long tail that don't.

Totally separate from the issue of whether this is good or bad: it doesn't look like these Ofcom guys are playing with a full deck.

Re: Ofcom fines 4chan £20K and counting for violating UK's Online Safety Act

#75
post #47
post #14

What a colossal waste of time. At this point, just unplug the undersea cables, and turn the UK into a big intranet. It's clearly what Ofcom wants.

Ofcom does what the government tells it to do. And the government does what people tell them to do. You underestimate the popular support for censorship laws in the UK - the country still had a legally-empowered "Board of Film Censors" in 2010...

My government doesn't seem to be listening to me, did you have yours professionally trained or something?

Re: Ofcom fines 4chan £20K and counting for violating UK's Online Safety Act

#76

Many people are saying this is symbolic and cannot be enforced. Unfortunately, that's just not true. Look at what happened to the founder of Telegram. Some jurisdiction decides you're violating their laws, all you need to do is catch a connecting flight or take a vacation on their soil or a place that will eagerly extradite, and you're a political prisoner. What happens if one of the officers of 4Chan or Gab is on a…

Still only enforceable if they leave the US soil.

Re: Ofcom fines 4chan £20K and counting for violating UK's Online Safety Act

#77

What do they seek to accomplish here? There is strong precedent for the US defending the 1st amendment against foreign interests. No UK bureaucrats are going to make a career out of this. Going after a company that can defend itself and can't be intimidated, will prevent them from bluffing successfully against smaller companies, who could realistically be intimidated. If I were working at Ofcom, I would stay away fro…

[flagged]

Re: Ofcom fines 4chan £20K and counting for violating UK's Online Safety Act

#78
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now that they banned discussing suicide online I'm sure the number of suicides will plummet.

You know, I'd like to actually know the answer to the question you're posing there. Does discussing suicide increase the overall rate, is it neutral -- or does it even decrease it? The Samaritans are usually regarded as a net public benefit, though they tend not to encourage people to go through with it, whereas the Wikipedia link suggests that the users of that forum have some kind of fetish for it. I would also exp…

Media coverage if done irresponsibly can encourage others to do the same.

> Research from over 100 international studies provide evidence that the way suicide deaths are reported is associated with increased suicide rates and suicide attempts after reporting [6,7].

> At the same time the WHO also suggests that positive and responsible reporting of suicides which promotes help-seeking behaviour, increases awareness of suicide prevention, shares stories of individuals overcoming their suicidal thinking or promotes coping strategies can help reduce suicides and suicidal behaviour [6,7,8]

https://cmhlp.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Resource-2-SPIR...

Re: Ofcom fines 4chan £20K and counting for violating UK's Online Safety Act

#79

Many people are saying this is symbolic and cannot be enforced. Unfortunately, that's just not true. Look at what happened to the founder of Telegram. Some jurisdiction decides you're violating their laws, all you need to do is catch a connecting flight or take a vacation on their soil or a place that will eagerly extradite, and you're a political prisoner. What happens if one of the officers of 4Chan or Gab is on a…

Enforcing bad legislation that was enacted through the democratic process doesn’t make a country a police state. It’s just the rule of law. That has always included the enforcement of bad laws as well as good ones.

Re: Ofcom fines 4chan £20K and counting for violating UK's Online Safety Act

#80

What do they seek to accomplish here? There is strong precedent for the US defending the 1st amendment against foreign interests. No UK bureaucrats are going to make a career out of this. Going after a company that can defend itself and can't be intimidated, will prevent them from bluffing successfully against smaller companies, who could realistically be intimidated. If I were working at Ofcom, I would stay away fro…

I think you’re overanalyzing it. They’re just enforcing the law. You and I may agree that it’s a bad law, but that doesn’t mean that the people in charge of enforcing it necessarily have complex and sinister motives.
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