Wikimedia Foundation Challenges UK Online Safety Act Regulations

Post by mytailorisrich » Tue, Jul 29, 2025, 1:31 PM UTC

graemep wrote: post #36

chippiewill wrote: post #4

I'm skeptical this goes anywhere legally speaking. The categorisation regulations are a statutory instrument rather than primary legislation, so they _are_ open to judicial review. But the Wikimedia foundation haven't presented an argument as to why the regulations are unlawful, just an argument for why they disagree with them. It should be noted that even if they succeed (which seems a long shot), this wouldn't affe…

The problem with the focus being on porn behind age verification as the main effect, is that it ignores all the other effects. Closing community forums and wikis. Uncertainty about blog comments. It is actually (as noted in many previous discussion about the Online Safety Act) pushing people to using big tech platforms, because they can no longer afford the compliance cost and risk of running their own.

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jul 29, 2025, 1:31 PM UTC

pjc50 wrote: post #56

lysace wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

There was also in the 90s the weird period of export control of encryption software from the US, leading to the "this tshirt is a munition" shirts with the algorithm printed on them. And the (thankfully failed) "clipper chip" mandate.

Post by bogdan » Tue, Jul 29, 2025, 1:38 PM UTC

wizzwizz4 wrote: post #48

graemep wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with the focus being on porn behind age verification as the main effect, is that it ignores all the other effects. Closing community forums and wikis. Uncertainty about blog comments. It is actually (as noted in many previous discussion about the Online Safety Act) pushing people to using big tech platforms, because they can no longer afford the compliance cost and risk of running their own.

If you have examples of this happening, please add them to the ORG list: https://www.blocked.org.uk/osa-blocks

Post by cormorant » Tue, Jul 29, 2025, 1:46 PM UTC

Post by freeone3000 » Tue, Jul 29, 2025, 2:05 PM UTC

mytailorisrich wrote: post #71

graemep wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with the focus being on porn behind age verification as the main effect, is that it ignores all the other effects. Closing community forums and wikis. Uncertainty about blog comments. It is actually (as noted in many previous discussion about the Online Safety Act) pushing people to using big tech platforms, because they can no longer afford the compliance cost and risk of running their own.

I am very skeptical that the Online Safety Act forces community forums and wikis to close. By and large the Act forces forums to have strong moderation and perhaps manual checks before publishing files and pictures uploaded by users, and that's about it. Likewise, I suspect that most geoblocks are out of misplaced fear not actual analysis.