How many sites is Britain's OSA going to kill?

[Astro What]

Seems that there are a LOT of sites deciding to go dark after the OSA in Britain goes fully into effect.

Hundreds of websites to shut down under UK’s ‘chilling’ internet laws

Hundreds of websites will be shut down on the day that Britain’s Online Safety Act comes into effect, in what are believed to be the first casualties of the new internet laws.

www.yahoo.com

Death Of A Forum: How The UK’s Online Safety Act Is Killing Communities

We’ve been warning for years that the UK’s Online Safety Act would be a disaster for the open internet. Its supporters accused us of exaggerating, or “shilling” for Big Tech. But as we’ve long argued, while tech giants like Facebook and Google might be able to shoulder the law’s immense...

ground.news

After reading through the requirements and restrictions... I honestly can say I also would not run a site if I was under their jurisdiction. It looks like just another case of knee-jerk reactionism (typically a right-wing ideology) in play.
For you that run a site based in Britain's jurisdiction, have you actually gone through the requirements of complying is the question.

 

[Retro]

Yeah, I was aware of this some time ago, then forgot all about it until I saw the active thread below over at xenforo.com yesterday. It could potentially kill my forum too, but I'm not going down without a fight. I'll see exactly what's required of me and make a decision then. In the meantime, I don't have to panic over it.

Note that it comes into effect tomorrow, 17.03.2025, but I don't feel that I need to put the forum on hold until I resolve this question, so it carries on as normal in the meantime. I agree that this is an unreasonable intrusion into our civil liberties and that these things are always done with the pretext of "helping" the population in some way, when it's really all about control by the people in power and could be the tip of the iceberg of what's to come.

What I don't get is how something like this can have international reach like it claims to have. So, if I, who is in the UK, access your site based in America, they can technically sue you for not complying with these draconian measures. How are you not out of the UK's jurisdiction?

UK Online Safety Regulations and impact on Forums

The UK regulator OFCOM yesterday announced a set of regulations which will come into effect on 17th March 2025 https://www.ofcom.org.uk/online-safety/illegal-and-harmful-content/time-for-tech-firms-to-act-uk-online-safety-regulation-comes-into-force/ These have broad implications for all...

xenforo.com

 

[Astro What]

So, if I, who is in the UK, access your site based in America, they can technically sue you for not complying with these draconian measures. How are you not out of the UK's jurisdiction?

They can sue in their local jurisdiction... good luck getting any traction on the results of it. All they can do is start playing like N. Korea and other dictator countries and blocking access to sites at their ISP provider levels. And I'm pretty sure that if it got to that point, there would be a revolution in Britain similar to the Boston tea party.
It's not any different than the GDPR crap that the EU pushed. Fine if you are under their jurisdiction... otherwise, they can poop in one hand and wish in the other and see which is heavier.

 

[Retro]

Given the job that I do, I've had to learn the details of the GDPR and what it covers and I can say that I do agree with some of it as it helps to stop companies and orgs from manipulating the ordinary man and gives a right to be forgotten - another double edged sword.

Good to know that the international overreach is unlikely to get anywhere.

Fine if you are under their jurisdiction... otherwise, they can poop in one hand and wish in the other and see which is heavier.

Oh boy, that imagery. I can't unsee that now! Lemme ring my therapist...

 

[Hitcore]

Big powergrab move by the government. From my perspective as someone who values privacy and whatnot a lot (even by Dutch standards, and we are a population known for having no filters, mind you) the restrictions that the UK imposes is coming straight out of a dystopian movie if you ask me. In fact, the following clip has some harrowing parallels to real life.

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

It looks like just another case of knee-jerk reactionism (typically a right-wing ideology) in play.

The (fictional) government in V for Vendetta is of course in structure not the same as the real life government, and whether this reactionism is "right-wing" or not, it goes to show that it does not matter under what banner these laws are put into effect as the result is always the same: to tighten the grip on the general population, which usually is a sign that some other radical changes are ahead. From the perspectives of the people who really are calling the shots, it's nice then to have significantly less resistance. On a grander scale governments ultimately are pretty much middle-management (which is why ideology matters a lot less than most people assume), but that's conspiracy territory we're heading into, which is a discussion perhaps for a different time and place.

What I don't get is how something like this can have international reach like it claims to have. So, if I, who is in the UK, access your site based in America, they can technically sue you for not complying with these draconian measures. How are you not out of the UK's jurisdiction?

Laws and juristiction are not my forte, I however know someone who has a nose for this sort of thing and is studying law, I will ask him if I get a hold of him, he usually has some interesting perspectives, which I will then relay to here.
I really hope this site/forum will hold, it's increasingly rare to find a place as comfy as NZ. Just to be on the safe side, Retro, you may want to create some backups in the event they'll crack down on NZ. Then you have the option of continuing this thing on a webserver in Timbuktu or whatever.

Oh boy, that imagery. I can't unsee that now!

With you there, mate.

Oh, and you gotta love this one:

Speed up laws to prevent children seeing harmful content online, Technology Secretary tells Ofcom

Peter Kyle urges regulator to implement measures in line with Online Safety Act ‘as soon as possible’

www.telegraph.co.uk

*ahem*....



It really IS the same everywhere.

 

[Geffers]

Traditionally, throughout the World, whoever obtains power, and by whatever means tends to have the support of police and military to enforce their will regardless of any extreme nature of subsequent laws passed. Occasionally uprisings are successful, French revolution, US 1776, Oliver Cromwell. Whether these were beneficial depends on where one stands politically at the time.

 

[data66]

@Tiffany need to read that stuff. It's as bad as Australia's.

 

[Tiffany]

@Tiffany need to read that stuff. It's as bad as Australia's.

@data66 Thanks for the mention to bring this thread to my attention. When I have more time I'll read over and respond. Good topic @Astro What.

 

[Tiffany]

Online Safety Act: explainer

www.gov.uk

This is a total website killer in the UK and potentially anyone that does business (local and international) or affiliated with a UK website.

The Act applies to services even if the companies providing them are outside the UK should they have links to the UK. This includes if the service has a significant number of UK users, if the UK is a target market, or it is capable of being accessed by UK users and there is a material risk of significant harm to such users.

These fines are subjective. They are also extraordinary and would cause anyone in the UK to reconsider having a website.

Companies can be fined up to £18 million or 10 percent of their qualifying worldwide revenue, whichever is greater. Criminal action can be taken against senior managers who fail to ensure companies follow information requests from Ofcom. Ofcom will also be able to hold companies and senior managers (where they are at fault) criminally liable if the provider fails to comply with Ofcom’s enforcement notices in relation to specific child safety duties or to for child sexual abuse and exploitation on their service.

There is no way a niche/hobby website can guarantee 24/7 moderation to moderate all posts to be compliant with these laws.

This includes the removal of illegal, state-sponsored disinformation through the Foreign Interference Offence, forcing companies to take action against a range of state-sponsored disinformation and state-linked interference online.

Not that I'm a rebel on information, but I've always asked who decides what is mis/disinformation. Looks like there will be a committee.

The Online Safety Act also requires Ofcom to establish an advisory committee on disinformation and misinformation to build cross-sector understanding of mis- and disinformation. The advisory committee has now appointed a Chair and plans to have its first meeting in April 2025.

I'm sorry, I don't know how you can "win" in this scenario as a business or niche website in the UK. This is very sad.

 

[Retro]

Tiffs, you've captured the salient points of this abomination of a legislation very well.

This is a total website killer in the UK and potentially anyone that does business (local and international) or affiliated with a UK website.

I've had a look at some of the requirements and it's a real pita I can tell you. I have to look at it properly soon and see exactly what I have to do to stay on the right side of it and then make a decision. I'm not joking when I say that it has the potential to kill this website, our beloved community. Until I see my way through this, my rebranding project is on hold. Heck, quite a few forums have already closed down directly due to this. Here's just one example:



The announcement that this came from:

Forum Closure

It is with huge sadness that the forum has closed on 16th March 2025 due to the requirements of the new legislation - the Online Safety Act. While this forum has always been perfectly safe, we were unable to meet the compliancy. The care guide...

www.thehamsterforum.com

Yes, a forum about harmless little hamsters has had to die directly due to this.

These fines are subjective. They are also extraordinary and would cause anyone in the UK to reconsider having a website.

Yes, quite. I first set up this forum in June 2021 and if this legislation had been in force then, I wouldn't have even started, it's so onerous. It was bad enough when the GDPR crap came in before then, now this is on top of it and is a whole lot worse.

Unfortunately, it's the usual situation of the few spoiling it for the many. While the government geniunely does love a power grab as I've been saying, they've been given all the excuse they need to feed their hidden agenda by relatively few paedophiles committing horrendous crimes by abusing this technology, including encrypted private chats like WhatsApp and Telegram. Yup, it's that tired old trope "for the children", making it very hard to push back against, especially as there's truth to it and here's why:

I saw a three part series recently called "Prime Suspect: Hunting the Predators" on Channel 5 which showed how these pedos would blackmail underage boys and girls into committing horrendous and degrading sexual acts, have them film it all on their smartphones and then send it to them. They've damaged and ruined thousands of lives across the world with their crimes.

Some of them then used forums on the darkweb to trade this illegal material for money and notoriety. It's beyond sick, I tell you. Each episode focused on one particular criminal, showing real police interrogations and how they eventually put them behind bars with long prison sentences of 20-30+ years. The investigations were long term, taking years to complete and bring them to justice. It took a toll on the detectives who had to sit through countless hours of this vile stuff too, with one resigning after she'd finally had enough. After the third episode I was thinking that I couldn't watch anymore, but thankfully the series had finished. Oh and of course, the perpetrators were all men, what a surprise.

You can see the motivation for this legislation and the other one forcing companies like Apple to install backdoors into their encrypted storage, that I posted about the other day:

Thread 'UK government forces backdoor in Apple encryption: this is BAD'

22 Feb 2025

The UK government has forced Apple to remove Advanced Data Protection, or in other words, allow a backdoor to your encrypted data stored in iCloud. This is bad for lots of reasons, like privacy, gives hackers / bad actors a way into your data and is a first step on the road to a totalitarian government, not too dissimilar with what's happened in America with Trump whom I don't doubt will demand the same thing in time. And of course, the pretexts are things like "protecting" against terrorism and "protecting" the children to justify why they're doing this. However, the real reason is...

• Retro
• Replies: 26
• Forum: News

• 

Given how these criminals operate underground on the darkweb, I can't see how this will actually stop them by putting onerous conditions on public websites on the regular web. The effectiveness of this remains to be seen and I'm not optimistic.

 

[Tiffany]

I'm still trying to process this new law @Retro. It is a shame that the internet has so much regulation and now over regulation in the UK, that one has to weigh keeping their website open or not. It's actually heartbreaking, because I think of all the people that love sharing online and because of this law, people will have to make hard decisions. Educational forums, niche forums, small businesses with a community forum included etc., will now have to consider the value of open conversation against the fines enabled by this law, to wit fines that are completely subjective by the internet overlords. So Europe, Australia and the UK have tough internet laws, give it time and the US will be following behind. Legislators have been trying to modify or remove Section 230 from the US Communications Act and this might be the season they may embark on changing this law.

 

[Astro What]

I have to look at it properly soon and see exactly what I have to do to stay on the right side of it and then make a decision. I'm not joking when I say that it has the potential to kill this website, our beloved community.

Welcome to the world of living in a nanny state.
Sadly, this is becoming all too frequent.
At least in many ways in my state, we are not having to worry so much about it except for the religious zealotry when it comes to the slathering need to be Christian based as the only ideology accepted as true. We won't bring into the discussion of whether you like the same sex (or both sexes) or not and never mind how you might identify. In those aspects you MUST comport to the radical right belief system.
The irony is for a party that was concerned so much with personal choice and privacy, the GOP seems to want to jump into your bed and make sure you are poking the correct receptacle. Only front facing ingress is allowed.

 

[Tiffany]

@Astro What The GOP in Texas have gone off the rail.

@Retro I'm very sorry your government is putting you and all of the other amazing webmasters in turmoil over how to handle this new law. Do you think there's any possibility that webmasters, website owners, businesses may be able to come together as a group to share grievances on this new law and possibly convince the government of making a change if the UK government sees that so many websites are closing because of their new online law?