Ofcom to fine 4Chan

It says in the link of the first post:



So essentially a company from another country isn't following a law they aren't required to follow.
They are arguably obliged to follow the laws of our country if they want their website available in this country. It’s a whole weird thing with the Internet, in that it’s everywhere and nowhere. 4chan might be run by Americans and hosted in god knows where and mirrored on umpteen servers and accessed in the UK. So whose laws should it be following?

There’s also an argument that if the UK government doesn’t want it here, they should just block it, but that’s kinda extreme and sinister and tens to end in a great firewall of China kind of a way.
 
All our **** ing useless government seem to be doing is to encourage everyone to use a VPN, and therefore negating the purpose of their policy in the first place.
What a wild time to be alive.
 
All our **** ing useless government seem to be doing is to encourage everyone to use a VPN, and therefore negating the purpose of their policy in the first place.
What a wild time to be alive.

Hilariously it's actually worse than just that.

People have been using character creation in some games to get past the "photo-verification" process. I'm sure they'll resolve that at some point, and VPN's will be next on the dystopian list. Banning kids from owning smart phones and limiting them to dumb devices would go ten times further than the ridiculous act they've implemented, with a mixture of consequences for the parents themselves to boot.

When I was a teen kids skipped school a hell of a lot, I did it myself. They implemented parental accountability with fines, kids started skipping school a whole lot less. Our Government has a track record of actively not protecting children, backdooring "internet safety for the kids" is ridiculous, as is heavy handed policing of whatever content they don't want people to see via agencies like Ofcom.
 
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So whose laws should it be following?
U.S.

Ofcom/UK can't regulate them in the same way they can't regulate a French TV channel if you manage to pick it up on your TV. Australia tried this nonsense a while ago by trying to remove a video from the internet and were shocked to learn other websites don't have to follow their laws.

The UK can ban it, and that really is their only option since 4chan has called their bluff, but people can just use a VPN anyway.
 
you can't install any vpn on your eg. apple phone if the government takes your legs away tell apple not to distribute some to uk user,

equally UK is not alone with in legislation enforcement - with eu dma/fines and age verification schemes (even if starmer's pro-AI team are impotent)

e: lots of web users who believe they have critical thinking skills, but are inside reflective silos echoing damage to free speech message,
it's not dissimilar to gun law - yes let's follow the US
 
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you can't install any vpn on your eg. apple phone if the government takes your legs away tell apple not to distribute some to uk user,

equally UK is not alone with in legislation enforcement - with eu dma/fines and age verification schemes (even if starmer's pro-AI team are impotent)

e: lots of web users who believe they have critical thinking skills, but are inside reflective silos echoing damage to free speech message,
it's not dissimilar to gun law - yes let's follow the US

You didn't bring France or whine about Starmer in this post, you ok?
 
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This should be good, Ofcom trying to police the world now…crazy how much the internet has changed

I almost wonder if they've done this on purpose to make the government look stupid.

The problem we have is governments are about 30 years too late in trying to regulate the internet. We're now in the sitation where big internet companies are too powerful to effectively regulate. This stuff needed to be baked in while the internet was in it's infancy, it's always possible to relax regulation once it's clear perceived threats weren't going to materialise.

In 1865 it was illegal to drive, unless someone walked in front of your car with a red flag. Since there's now 41 million vehicles on our roads, this obviously hasn't done any long term damage to car industry.
 
I feel like I'm out of step here but I agree with Ofcom in principle if not in approach.

Alarmed to see so many 4chan supporters here though. SA should never have perma'd Moot.

I didn't realise 4chan was even a thing anymore!

It's a hiding to nothing anyway.

Total waste of time and money.

Good optics to certain audiences, maybe? ✌(ツ)
 
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I don't agree that countries should be trying to dictate how foreign websites operate, but I do believe countries are free to block traffic to those websites in their own country. So if the UK wants to block access to 4chan, then go ahead I have zero issue with it, but I do have an issue if the UK tries to dictate how 4chan operates because that affects the whole world. And I hate that the US government aggressively attacks other countries who say they are thinking of blocking access to US websites
 
I feel like I'm out of step here but I agree with Ofcom in principle if not in approach.

Alarmed to see so many 4chan supporters here though. SA should never have perma'd Moot.

Unfortunately Moot went to work for Google but became a bit of a useless zombie they shipped between departments until he left.

I don't think anyone is supporting them, as much as laughing at what they know is likely to happen, I don't care how far left you might be but the current Government is somehow worse than the last so far Covid aside and I don't know many that think otherwise.

Frankly I hate the current political climate on both sides, so much so I'm (jokingly, because some will take it literal) starting to think the Libertarians might be right.

I don't agree that countries should be trying to dictate how foreign websites operate, but I do believe countries are free to block traffic to those websites in their own country. So if the UK wants to block access to 4chan, then go ahead I have zero issue with it, but I do have an issue if the UK tries to dictate how 4chan operates because that affects the whole world. And I hate that the US government aggressively attacks other countries who say they are thinking of blocking access to US websites

While I agree on a surface level, I do not want to live in a world of censorship by generations of incompetent governance, it doesn't look like it's trying to improve things for people rather than cover up their own utter idiocy.

We mocked the "Great Firewall of China" for years, I don't want to see the same in the UK.
 
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