LFGSS and Microcosm shutting down 16th March 2025 (the day before the Online Safety Act is enforced)

Giving @dinosaurpt proposed letter after adding a couple of further pieces added - please do flag up other articles that provide a sympathetic view, particularly if they're major news outlet (less niche the better).

You can find who your local MP is here

Dear [local MP],

I am writing to you about the Online Safety Act due to come into force March 17th 2025.

Ofcom has published advice pertaining to the categorisation and requirements for user-to-user internet services (i.e. services that allow users to create/upload and share content).

Specifically, this advice sets out the obligation for any service with links to the UK to:

someone please fill this in with the requirements applicable to all or multi-risk services.

The Secretary of State must now consider this advice and pass regulations to a make it into law.

The act, which clearly was originally meant to target tech companies (as evidenced by Ofcom’s frequent use of terms “companies”, “businesses” and “tech companies” in its literature), was set out in such broad and vague terms that small online forums such as those owned and operated by sports clubs, hobby societies and other special interest community groups, will now become regulated services.

These forums and message boards are used by the groups to communicate and organise themselves and, particularly since Covid, have become extremely important spaces, bringing people with common interests together, serving as an important outlet for personal development and expression and being an effective avenue to combat loneliness and social isolation (which are in current times their own epidemic). In many cases, communities exist solely within the realm of these online forums.

These platforms are most often ran by volunteers in a personal capacity or as members of non-profit organisations and the overly onerous and complex compliance effort required to meet the proposed requirements as well as the personal liability risk faced by the individuals operating these forums, pose a serious threat to their continued existence.

I believe regulation serves an important purpose, particularly where it pertains to the online safety of our children, and applaud its introduction. However, the proposed requirements, in their current form, will have a disproportionate impact on the above mentioned communities. They will then be faced with the choice of using commercial internet service providers (where most abusive and dangerous content is actually disseminated, as illustrated by Ofcom’s own research) or simply cease to exist.

[insert personal impact statement (e.g. I personally am a member of…) or delete}

The national media seems to have only just picked up on this issue. Please see below for some relevant news reporting:

Hundreds of websites to shut down under UK’s ‘chilling’ internet laws
Hundreds of small websites may shut down due to UK's Online Safety Act
Death Of A Forum: How The UK’s Online Safety Act Is Killing Communities
Britain's online safety rules come into force, and sites are already shutting down.

I therefore politely request that you to look into this matter and intercede with the Secretary of State to consider incorporating changes into the advice received from Ofcom, to align the requirements with the nature, size and resources of these self-organized communities (which are an expression of the centuries-old British tradition of associativism), minimising the impact of the act in their operation and ensuring their continued existence.

Kind regards