>The online message board 4chan is being investigated by the UK communications regulator over failure to comply with recently introduced online safety rules.>Ofcom says it has received complaints over potential illegal content on the website, which has not responded to its requests for information.>Under the Online Safety Act, online services must assess the risk of UK users encountering illegal content and activity on their platforms, and take steps to protect them from it.>Ofcom is also investigating porn provider First Time Videos over its age verification checks, and seven file sharing services over potential child sexual abuse material.>4chan has been contacted for comment.>Ofcom says it requested 4chan's risk assessment in April but has not had any response.>The regulator will now investigate whether the platform "has failed, or is failing, to comply with its duties to protect its users from illegal content".>It would not say what kind of illegal content it is investigating.>Ofcom has the power to fine companies up to 10% of their global revenues, or £18m - whichever is the greater number.>4chan has often been at the heart of online controversies in its 22 years, including misogynistic campaigns and conspiracy theories.>Users are anonymous, which can often lead to extreme content being posted.>It was the subject of an alleged hack earlier this year, which took parts of the website down for over a week.The gilded cage for UK internet users is about to get much, much smaller.
https://web.archive.org/web/20250128165536/https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/online-safety-act-explainer/online-safety-act-explainer >>3708This makes me think about "the rules". Dictated by some, and enforced by some. In the end it is all about who has bigger guns.
"I like Hitler's mustache" is illegal hate speech in the UK. A frog could croak in the woods and the UK government would begin investigating it for dangerous mouth sounds. If the UK doesn't think 4chan is properly following UK law, then the UK ought to block UK citizens from visiting 4chan. What right or capability do they have to fine 4chan anyway?
>Uhmm hey company from another country, you did a heckin racism so you need to pay a fine to our government, or.. or else!
What a bunch of fags!
>>3710>A frog could croak in the woods and the UK government would begin investigating it for dangerous mouth sounds. Ha! Yeah thats about right.
>What right or capability do they have to fine 4chan anyway?They don't, however that doesn't stop them from creating a dystopian, authoritarian 'superpower' in the pursuit of 'equality and child safety'. One of the major caveats of the Online Safety Act (other then its intentionally ambiguous phrasing) is the government wants to break end to end encryption for safety reasons. They tried this with Apple recently (
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c20g288yldkoto) the point that they even gave Apple a secret gag order (
https://www.computerweekly.com/news/366620601/US-Congress-demands-UK-lifts-gag-on-Apple-encryption-order) to prevent them from informing users. They have no doubt done this with other companies, and we may never know for sure how said companies responded.
>>3711>however that doesn't stop them from creating a dystopian, authoritarian 'superpower'I really hope the UK to tight even more the budget and starve their shitkins on welfare. Then the lulz will begin for real.
>>3714Service uptime graph for various mobile (cell) providers, and Virgin, BT and Sky being the largest internet service providers in the UK (
https://downdetector.co.uk/).
It's quite suspect that every single one has been having issues, which would suggest an infrastructure change further up the chain. It could be a minor misconfiguration, or it might be relation to a new General Act released (
http://web.archive.org/web/20250621050227/https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2025/18/enacted)>An Act to make provision about access to customer data and business data; to make provision about services consisting of the use of information to ascertain and verify facts about individuals; to make provision about the recording and sharing, and keeping of registers, of information relating to apparatus in streets; to make provision about the keeping and maintenance of registers of births and deaths; to make provision for the regulation of the processing of information relating to identified or identifiable living individuals; to make provision about privacy and electronic communications; to establish the Information Commission; to make provision about information standards for health and social care; to make provision about the grant of smart meter communication licences; to make provision about the disclosure of information to improve public service delivery; to make provision about the retention of information by providers of internet services in connection with investigations into child deaths; to make provision about providing information for purposes related to the carrying out of independent research into online safety matters; to make provision about the retention of biometric data; to make provision about services for the provision of electronic signatures, electronic seals and other trust services; to make provision about works protected by copyright and the development of artificial intelligence systems; to make provision about the creation of purported intimate images; and for connected purposes. WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
>>3717To be perfectly honest I've always thought 1984 was kind of an overrated book. At the same time I'm a little impressed at how effectively modern Britain has managed to emulate it, while simultaneously convincing its population that they're doing the opposite of emulating it.
>>3718It only seems overrated because we have since learned that people are so much worse than the characters depicted in the book. When Orwell wrote it in 1949 it was positively shocking.
>>3718>At the same time I'm a little impressed at how effectively modern Britain has managed to emulate itThe normies are going to norm. Every Single Time.
>>3719The Overton Window has been moved underground, to a locked filing cabinet in a disused lavatory.
>>3722No one tell them about sad panda
>>3722Sounds as if they are planning to track who is using those sites.
Probably going to put them on a government watch list of some kind.
Wind up being hauled in for questioning anytime someone complains that some creep waved their tallywhacker at a kid.