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

theregister.com

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

#101

Post by mikkupikku »

alphazard wrote: post #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 fro…

4chan is a small company with dubious profitability so I doubt they can afford much in the way of lawyers, but it doesn't really matter because they can simply ignore the UK completely. They only accept crypto anyway, so the UK can't even take away 4chan's payment processing in the UK.

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

#102

Post by mikkupikku »

gadders wrote: post #21

I think the end state of this will be when Trump links prosecutions like this to tariff deals, and Kier Starmer will have to choose between mean words on the internet or further damage to an economy in already bad shape.

[dead]

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

#103

Post by basisword »

linuxftw wrote: post #41

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…

This is supposed to be a surprise? You break the law in a country, and then visit that country, and - shock - they arrest you.

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

#104

Post by alphazard »

basisword wrote: post #99
alphazard wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't agree that wanting to further one's own career is complex or sinister. If the enforcement of laws wasn't aligned with career progress it would be bad for enforcement, including the laws that you and I want enforced. Even if the goal is just enforcement, you would get more enforcement, collect more fines, if you didn't put your ability to actually collect fines into question. When 4chan successfully defends it…

>> When 4chan successfully defends itself How do you expect this to happen? The law is pretty clear and afaik 4chan has been pretty explicit that they know the law and they're ignoring it. 4chan's 'out' is that they don't have any legal presence in the UK. More legitimate enterprises do so the results of this will have no bearing on them.

I'm talking specifically about US companies, which make up the lion's share of popular websites. They are served from the US as a primary location, and the company is incorporated there as well. Modulo CDN hosted assets, there is no presence in the UK.

If the company is in the UK, then yes, they are obviously screwed. The damage to the UK's web presence has already been done. I don't expect anyone would want to incorporate an internet dependent company there.

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

#105

Post by mytailorisrich »

basisword wrote: post #99
alphazard wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't agree that wanting to further one's own career is complex or sinister. If the enforcement of laws wasn't aligned with career progress it would be bad for enforcement, including the laws that you and I want enforced. Even if the goal is just enforcement, you would get more enforcement, collect more fines, if you didn't put your ability to actually collect fines into question. When 4chan successfully defends it…

>> When 4chan successfully defends itself How do you expect this to happen? The law is pretty clear and afaik 4chan has been pretty explicit that they know the law and they're ignoring it. 4chan's 'out' is that they don't have any legal presence in the UK. More legitimate enterprises do so the results of this will have no bearing on them.

If this is deemed illegal in an US court then the OSA will be unenforcebale against US entities in the US (though not sure what's needed to set precedent).

This is important because otherwise UK fines may be enforceable in US courts.

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

#106

Post by TimorousBestie »

pqtyw wrote: post #86
TimorousBestie wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So another thirty years of Tory rule (or worse) because Labor did a dog that caught the car. Hurray.

Or Reform... considering that Conservatives are third in the polls currently. If there were elections now according to the current projections Tories would get less seats than the Liberal Democrats.

Yeah, I consider Reform worse.

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

#107

Post by linuxftw »

foldr wrote: post #87
linuxftw wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The UK locks up political dissidents under draconian 'safety' laws.

You don’t refer to any specific cases so I can’t offer any specific response, but the key phrase is > under ___ laws. A police state is one where the police arrest whoever the government directs them to arrest (rather than enforcing the law). Keir Starmer is not phoning up Police chiefs to get people disappeared.

The laws are whatever the UK's kangaroo courts decide they are. It's a total police state.

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

#108

Post by storus »

spookie wrote: post #100
arghwhat wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you likening the UK to Russia? This is not a fictive fine, it's threats of imprisonment, and ignoring the whole thing means having to avoid travelling to or through the UK for life, and that's assuming the UK doesn't try to activate any sort of extradition agreements. Even without going to prison, that's a permanent and quite significant theft of freedom of movement. If you ever travel abroad, you could end up ac…

I really fail to see the difference between this and Russia's fine.

If your flight is redirected due to weather/etc. to some British commonwealth country, then you might be grabbed upon landing. Or if you are a really big fish, your plane might be forced to land on a crown-controlled land.

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

#109

Post by foldr »

linuxftw wrote: post #107
foldr wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don’t refer to any specific cases so I can’t offer any specific response, but the key phrase is > under ___ laws. A police state is one where the police arrest whoever the government directs them to arrest (rather than enforcing the law). Keir Starmer is not phoning up Police chiefs to get people disappeared.

The laws are whatever the UK's kangaroo courts decide they are. It's a total police state.

Courts ruling on matters of legal interpretation is how things are supposed to work. This is like saying “the US Constitution is whatever the kangaroo Supreme Court says that it is.”

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

#110

Post by Hamuko »

andy_ppp wrote: post #95
aunty_helen wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

4chan are the “think of the children” bad guys to make an example out of. This isn’t a play to get money or 4chan to comply, it’s a play to increase the strength of their legislation. So expect stronger blocking etc to be on the cards to prevent foreign entities from avoiding the law.

Yes the government have already talked about banning VPNs and government taking copies of your private keys :-/

What private keys? Any private keys?
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