Wikimedia Foundation Challenges UK Online Safety Act Regulations • Hacker News Board

Re: Wikimedia Foundation Challenges UK Online Safety Act Regulations

#111

Post by alsetmusic » Tue, Jul 29, 2025, 3:44 PM UTC

lysace wrote: post #49

Roark66 wrote: post #41

Somehow I have the deja-vu of when Theresa May (as a Home Secretary) tried to ban personal encryption altogether. Let me remind everyone this is in a country that already has a law that says you're legally required to give your encryption key to the police and if you do not, even if there is no other crime you can get 2 years in jail... This told me all I needed to know about her level of understanding of complex top…

Even low-grade encryption was actually forbidden in France for a while in the mid 90s. I remember snickering about the whole thing back then, in a much smaller but also quite similar forum. https://www.theregister.com/1999/01/15/france_to_end_severe_... > Until 1996 anyone wishing to encrypt any document had to first receive an official sanction or risk fines from F6000 to F500,000 ($1000 to $89,300) and a 2-6 month…

Apple made an advertisement about the PowerMac G4 as a "supercomputer" because of onerous export controls related to encryption way back. It's more cheeky, I think, than serious. But then again, I haven't looked into it beyond just remembering that it happened.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoxvLq0dFvw

Re: Wikimedia Foundation Challenges UK Online Safety Act Regulations

#112

Post by alsetmusic » Tue, Jul 29, 2025, 3:47 PM UTC

supermatt wrote: post #102

nsksl wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's how it should work but you will find that a majority of parents cba rearing their children so they want the state to do it for them. And this extends to so many things in life that the authoritarian grip is only going to get tighter with time.

> parents cba rearing their children And THAT is the problem that they should be tackling.

This is a problem that could be solved with socially funded child care, at least in part. But that's not gonna happen. (Posting from USA; I don't know how this may or may not apply in the UK.)

Either way, if parents had more time to raise their children rather than slave away at jobs to stay above water, I have to think there'd be some improvement in child development.

Re: Wikimedia Foundation Challenges UK Online Safety Act Regulations

#113

Post by hermitcrab » Tue, Jul 29, 2025, 3:51 PM UTC

Related: I have just written a brief overview of how I understand the Online Safety Act to apply to owners of forums without 'adult' content, e.g. forums hosted by product companies, about their products.

https://successfulsoftware.net/2025/07/29/the-online-safety-...

Re: Wikimedia Foundation Challenges UK Online Safety Act Regulations

#114

Post by hermitcrab » Tue, Jul 29, 2025, 3:53 PM UTC

supermatt wrote: post #99

Why can't these measures be handled via parental control? Children are using mobiles and tablets almost exclusively, both major providers of which supply tools for parental administration. Content filtering is already facilitated by existing parental control. Mobile browsers could be made to issue a header if the user is under a certain age. Mobile apps could have access to a flag. Parents should be responsible for p…

>Why can't these measures be handled via parental control?

That would be the ideal. Unfortunately, many parents do not have the skills and/or motivation to manage their children's devices.

Re: Wikimedia Foundation Challenges UK Online Safety Act Regulations

#115

Post by miohtama » Tue, Jul 29, 2025, 3:55 PM UTC

lysace wrote: post #32

ZiiS wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't see any language in the statutory instrument suggesting anyone had any intention of applying it to Wikimedia? The most likely outcome is the court will reassure them of that. This might help other people running similar websites by citing the case rather than having to pay for all the experts but isn't going to magically stop it applying to Meta as intended.

Wikimedia hosts what UK puritans consider pornographic content. A lot of it. Often in high quality and with a permissible license. I would link to relevant meta pages but I want to be able travel through LHR.

A kid can go to Wikipedia and read https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex

Re: Wikimedia Foundation Challenges UK Online Safety Act Regulations

#116

Post by hermitcrab » Tue, Jul 29, 2025, 3:59 PM UTC

miohtama wrote: post #33

In related news, the Labour party is already considering banning VPNs. We almost got like two days of Online Safety Act in effect. https://www.gbnews.com/politics/labour-ban-vpn-online-safety...

GB News is about as reliable as Fox News. I suggest you get your news somewhere else.

Re: Wikimedia Foundation Challenges UK Online Safety Act Regulations

#117

Post by hermitcrab » Tue, Jul 29, 2025, 4:01 PM UTC

IlikeKitties wrote: post #2

All this is of course bullshit. The only response that would have a chance of succeeding would have been if most websites collectively just blocked everyone from the UK. Imagine if 60-70% of the internet just stopped working for UK People. The law would be toppled tomorrow. Every Company that implemented any compliance is a traitor to the free internet and should be treated as such.

>Every Company that implemented any compliance is a traitor to the free internet and should be treated as such.

Companies can be fined £18 million pounds or 10% of revenue, whichever is greater. If you feel like being the first test case, be my guest.

Re: Wikimedia Foundation Challenges UK Online Safety Act Regulations

#118

Post by pkilgore » Tue, Jul 29, 2025, 4:01 PM UTC

exasperaited wrote: post #93

master-lincoln wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you both have a point. Why not block foreign access to your internet service if the laws of that foreign country are nothing you want to be concerned with? It might be a bit disruptive in the beginning, but in the long run I think we all benefit from that. It increases the chance of politicians to realize their over-boarding decisions by having public pressure from previous users of those services and it incr…

The point I am making is that everyone in the USA is somehow absolutely certain that Britain is a hell-hole of authoritarianism because of this law, and yet 25 US states have enacted laws which are in some cases basically lunatic porn censorship (whereas our OSA is not) and HN just ignores it because the Brits, eh? The fabric of the USA is being ripped apart by a kleptocratic authoritarian fascist-at-least-wannabe go…

Weird, here I am being completely consistent that both sets of laws are completely fucked and both countries are hell holes of authoritarianism.

I'll fret about both, thank you very much.

Re: Wikimedia Foundation Challenges UK Online Safety Act Regulations

#119

Post by jajuuka » Tue, Jul 29, 2025, 4:02 PM UTC

supermatt wrote: post #99

Why can't these measures be handled via parental control? Children are using mobiles and tablets almost exclusively, both major providers of which supply tools for parental administration. Content filtering is already facilitated by existing parental control. Mobile browsers could be made to issue a header if the user is under a certain age. Mobile apps could have access to a flag. Parents should be responsible for p…

That's what blows my mind anytime I hear someone complain about all the vile content on the internet today and that we need to protect children. What about "be a parent" is so impossible to do today? Every device and OS has parental controls for a reason. Yeah they aren't perfect but they will prevent 99% of the content from getting to your kids.

Re: Wikimedia Foundation Challenges UK Online Safety Act Regulations

#120

Post by Eisenstein » Tue, Jul 29, 2025, 4:12 PM UTC

nsksl wrote: post #100

supermatt wrote: post #99

Why can't these measures be handled via parental control? Children are using mobiles and tablets almost exclusively, both major providers of which supply tools for parental administration. Content filtering is already facilitated by existing parental control. Mobile browsers could be made to issue a header if the user is under a certain age. Mobile apps could have access to a flag. Parents should be responsible for p…

That's how it should work but you will find that a majority of parents cba rearing their children so they want the state to do it for them. And this extends to so many things in life that the authoritarian grip is only going to get tighter with time.

Note: the following is not arguing in favor of the UK policy, but is a general observation.

I seriously doubt that the majority of parents want the state to raise their children for them.

By arguing about irresponsible or lazy parents you are latching on to the first, most convenient thing that seems to make sense to you. But I think that is a mistake because not only does it perpetuate some kind of distorted sense of reality where parents don't care about their children and want to hand off all responsibility for them, but it distracts you from the real causal issues.

The fact is that humans have for millions of years acted in various levels of coordination to raise and look after children as a group. Modern society has made this all sorts of dysfunctional, but it still exists.