The online message board's lawyers say UK safety laws shouldn't apply to a business based in the US.

A lawyer representing the online message board 4chan says it won’t pay a proposed fine by the UK’s media regulator as it enforces the Online Safety Act.

According to Preston Byrne, managing partner of law firm Byrne & Storm, Ofcom has provisionally decided to impose a £20,000 fine “with daily penalties thereafter” for as long as the site fails to comply with its request.

“Ofcom’s notices create no legal obligations in the United States,” he told the BBC, adding he believed the regulator’s investigation was part of an “illegal campaign of harassment” against US tech firms.

Ofcom has declined to comment while its investigation continues.

“4chan has broken no laws in the United States - my client will not pay any penalty,” Mr Byrne said.

Ofcom began investigating 4chan over whether it was complying with its obligations under the UK’s Online Safety Act.

Then in August, it said it had issued 4chan with “a provisional notice of contravention” for failing to comply with two requests for information.

Ofcom said its investigation would examine whether the message board was complying with the act, including requirements to protect its users from illegal content.

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.

    • Danitos@reddthat.comEnglish
      631·
      2 days ago

      I feel like that’s the ultimate goal: simply not having “unmoral” content on the internet.

      I used to think that when sites like Pornhub started geoblocking regions with those stupid laws, it was a sort of win for the open internet, some sort of fight back. Now I think that was the original goal of the fascist to begin with.

      • rc__buggy@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        6·
        1 day ago

        Pornography, manifested today in the omnipresent propagation of transgender ideology and sexualization of children, for instance, is not a political Gordian knot inextricably binding up disparate claims about free speech, property rights, sexual liberation, and child welfare. It has no claim to First Amendment protection. Its purveyors are child predators and misogynistic exploiters of women. Their product is as addictive as any illicit drug and as psychologically destructive as any crime. Pornography should be outlawed. The people who produce and distribute it should be imprisoned. Educators and public librarians who purvey it should be classed as registered sex offenders. And telecommunications and technology firms that facilitate its spread should be shuttered.” (Mandate for Leadership 2025, Page 5)

        One of the authors of P2025 celebrates when Pornhub geoblocks, I think I saw him speaking in a video, I’ve never been able to find the quote in written form.

      • WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.worldEnglish
        201·
        2 days ago

        Geoblocking fascist regions is a win for everyone outside that region, and better than capitulating, but fascism is like a cancer that will continue expanding by force, and geoblocks will become less effective at protecting the internet for the rest of us. They are only a temporary measure. As long as the cancer remains the disease is terminal.