Almost the entire political and media class of the UK has based most of their thinking about online safety on a piece of fiction (albeit a compelling, well-produced one), namely #Adolescence. This is quite depressing.
Helen Lovejoy-style "won't somebody please think of the children!" rallying around the #OnlineSafetyAct will continue, despite the unpleasant reality that it'll not do much to fix the real problems with Big Tech platforms AND impose burdensome compliance costs on small websites.
US Troll site Kiwi Farms receives Ofcom demand for Online Safety Act “Risk Assessment”, rejects it on 1A/Jurisdiction grounds, demands MLAT
https://alecmuffett.com/article/113056
#1StAmendment #KiwiFarms #OnlineSafetyAct #cloudflare #ofcom #trolls
I filed away my (sparse) notes for a Scots Language MUD I'd been sketching over the past 15 years. (Little actual development, more of a thought experiment, but it would have been fun.)
The #OnlineSafetyAct makes it prohibitively expensive to even attempt. And to think MUDs were invented here. It'd be imposible now with this. I first played one on JANET back in the 90s too, a jewel in the UK tech crown
Yes, okay, this is a bit of a whinge.
I have spent hours helping people and small organisations with the UK's Online Safety Act.
Many, many, many hours.
And... no-one is any safer for it.
Sometimes, Ofcom bewilders me:
Ofcom has said that for small sites, the costs of complying [with the Online Safety Act] “are likely to be negligible or in the small thousands at most”.
Small sites, especially volunteer-run community sites, generally don't have "small thousands" to spend on legal advice. And even if they did, that's far from "negligible".
There's still time to put pressure on the UK government.
The UK Secretary of State has the power to exempt small, safely moderated websites from the Online Safety duties.
We need urgent change to protect net plurality, rather than further consolidating power in monopoly platforms. We need competition for a safer Internet.
Write to your MP (UK) #SaveOurSites 
https://action.openrightsgroup.org/save-our-sites-write-your-mp
The UK Online Safety Act comes into effect today.
Its onerous duties may cause many small sites, blogs and fedi instances to shut down or geoblock UK users when faced with potential fines and penalties.
This won't keep children safe. It'll benefit large platforms like Facebook and X that are laying waste to content moderation.
Shut vile death video site, families say, as Ofcom gets new powers
...
From Monday, Ofcom gets new powers to crack down on illegal content, but it may not be enough to close the site.
Ofcom has no powers to "shut" or "close" sites.
At most, it can seek an order from a court to compel ISPs on the UK to attempt to block access (which probably means abusing DNS).
And from the summer all sites must have robust age verification systems to prevent children accessing a range of content.
No, they don't.
Bravo, BBC. Another excellent job reporting the facts there.
I spent a good chunk of my weekend helping people running tiny, low risk, online services complete paperwork about the UK’s Online Safety Act, for zero discernible benefit.
So it is a bit galling that the main headline on the BBC this morning is about the government wanting to “slash red tape”.
I have spent one heck of a lot of time on the OSA, trying to help others with its burden, and it just seems so utterly unnecessary.
When it comes to blogs, Ofcom says one thing, the UK Online Safety Act says another.
This lack of clarity over whether blogs with comments are exempt will push small sites to shut down completely.
We need the UK government to tighten up the definitions and exemptions in the Act.
Read our explainer for more detail 
https://www.openrightsgroup.org/blog/save-our-sites-deadline-17-march/
Under the UK Online Safety Act, small blogs, forums and fedi instances are faced with disproportionate requirements to:
️ Check if they have UK users
️ Do a risk assessment on whether kids might access the content, or if CSAM or terrorist material might be posted in the comments
️ Put themselves at the risk of fines, and even prison sentences, if they fail to comply with Ofcom’s future directives
The UK Online Safety Act burdens small sites with duties and penalties that they can't shoulder. They'll shut down instead, stripping us of net plurality.
There’s a simple solution:
Exempt small, safely run blogs, forums and fedi instances The government can do this now
The duties start TOMORROW – Write to your MP 
https://action.openrightsgroup.org/save-our-sites-write-your-mp
Saddling small sites with the same duties as huge platforms means many will shut down in a hammer blow to net plurality.
We'll be left with the Sophie’s choice of monopoly services; the incubators of online harms.
URGENT: The UK government must change the Online Safety Act to protect safe, non-commercial blogs, forums and fediverse.
Write to your MP to #SaveOurSites
https://action.openrightsgroup.org/save-our-sites-write-your-mp
404 
Blogs, forums and fedi instances are facing burdensome duties and penalties imposed by the UK #OnlineSafetyAct.
Despite being small and safely moderated, the Act sweeps them up into the same regime as platforms like Facebook and X. This is overkill, resulting in many shutting down or blocking UK users.
With the duties going live on 17 March, urgent action is required to exempt small sites.
Act NOW to #SaveOurSites
https://action.openrightsgroup.org/save-our-sites-write-your-mp
first Apple, now Google possibly getting TCN from UK gov't? this is completely mental if true.
they're only makes things worse with this shit, and not just for its citizens: other govt's will take notice of such tactics and may begin using it.
with this & Online Safety Act mess, UK giv't is genuinely wrecking any online freedom
Will the last small site turn off the lights?
The UK Online Safety Act imposes the same duties and penalties on blogs, forums and fedi instances as huge platforms.
Many small, safely moderated sites will shut down or block UK users.
Crushing competition is the last thing we need for a safer Internet!
Act now before 17 March
https://action.openrightsgroup.org/save-our-sites-write-your-mp
Are blogs exempt?
While Ofcom suggests they are, the UK Online Safety Act is far from certain.
The result is that small scale, non-commercial blogs will simply shutter the window.
This will push users from safely moderated sites onto services like Facebook and X – the fountainhead of online harms.
Protect Net Plurality! 
Broad brush duties under the UK Online Safety Act threaten any website with possible penalties.
Small, safe sites can't shoulder this regime. We'll see the lights going out on blogs and forums from 17 March with a devastating impact for online communities.
We must #SaveOurSites
https://www.openrightsgroup.org/blog/save-our-sites-deadline-17-march/
@openrightsgroup have started a campaign to protect low-risk small-scale sites, and have a very easy-to-use tool to help you write to your MP to express your concern about the impending implementation of Ofcom's illegal harms code of practice. It will take less than 5 minutes to do.
If you are affected as a user or a site operator, you can use the template here to write to your MP.
https://action.openrightsgroup.org/save-our-sites-write-your-mp
If you are in the UK, you should already / should soon see "age assurance" tools restricting your access to porn sites.
Are you be willing to give a porn site / random third party service sufficient documentation or information to verify your age?
(For the sake of argument, let's agree that, yes, this will be circumventable trivially, even for many sites which bother to comply,, but that's not the point of this.)
