UK Online Safety Bill... if it passes, I may have to shutter LFGSS

The guidance posted today is a bit of a shit show

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/online-safety-guidance-if-you-own-or-manage-an-online-platform

My fav bit

"This guidance is distinct and separate from the forthcoming regulatory requirements that will be introduced through the Online Safety Bill."

... how many requirements are they really planning on having? It's insane

subbed

Could you look at age gating it to block U18s?

In terms of enforcement, my sense is that the risk is going to be with Big Tech rather than lfgss, but totally get that you don’t want to be in any kind of firing line

Could you look at age gating it to block U18s?

Ugh. Not that age gates work, but the definition of those who need to be protected includes "vulnerable" without a clear definition of that.

I mean... largely I imagine I'd just exclude vulnerable people. But that isn't a great solution for many reasons.

I wonder whether regulation like this is naturally going to force small forums into the anonymous-owner space. Decentralised P2P protocols like Mastodon and whatnot so the community hosts the forum rather than a centralised entity. Of course, then regulating actual unwanted or unpleasant content becomes really difficult.

I'm sure it will @Invent. These kinds of bills that force forums to consider going "dark" is the internet equivalent of how the over-use of antibiotics is creating superbugs.

Moved to the announcements forum.

I've not had time to engage with this... and largely have concluded the easiest thing to do is to shift ownership out of the country were push come to shove.

If it is made more reasonable, then when the more concrete proposal is produced I'll engage with it then.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/588769

Not a bad shout, signed.

shift ownership out of the country were push come to shove

I thought the draft bill would still apply to ownership outside the UK because of the way they specify "UK-linked"?

https://webdevlaw.uk/2022/07/11/your-compliance-obligations-under-the-uks-online-safety-bill/

What I’ve come to realise since then is it’s not a joke. That’s the intention. Make it too prohibitive, risky, or impossible for public discourse to flow on smaller platforms and services; require the larger ones to become speech police and societal monitors

Yeah... it seems to still be happening.

but there is hope

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#votekemi #gobad

Nadine Dorries say she’s wrong. You may be shocked but a QC then chimed in and said Dorries was the one talking shite.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-62158287

well it has passed today, and OFCOM are looking to have guidance published within a couple of weeks on what the phase 1 requirements are https://www.ofcom.org.uk/online-safety/information-for-industry/roadmap-to-regulation

I have yet to read the law itself.

Oh wow

when the final text is published, what I'm interested in learning is whether this not being run by a company, but by an individual... means this law doesn't apply, or just created extreme liability for me... that's basically what decides the future for the various sites, because I personally do not accept the risk of jailtime because of stuff people say on here.

it may also mean I have to put some effort into fundraising, as we might be on a path to incur a lot of legal fees just to minimally comply with the law... which also creates a risk that the site is no longer viable at all.

...creates a risk that the site is no longer viable at all.

Noooooooooooooooooooo

Friendliest Forum On The I̶n̶t̶e̶r̶n̶e̶t̶ Dark Net

Well, that would be very bad news. Do we have anyone on here who can give pro bono legal advice on this?

In the latest installment of "This Government is Fucking Stupid..."

at this point... before the final text is published, there's no point doing more.

it's had Royal ascent, will now be published... let's wait for that.

I'm open to various options, including just running all of this outside of the UK and giving ownership to someone else - that may be enough to just solve all the things... but only if we trust whomever that person is of course (they'd own it all)

Are you purposefully trolling @Oliver Schick ?