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    Ofcom £20,000 fine of Delaware-incorporated 4chan is illegal says US law firm
    United Kingdom

    Ofcom £20,000 fine of Delaware-incorporated 4chan is illegal says US law firm

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    31 Comments

    1. ProtonHyrax99 on

      Realistically, what can Ofcom actually do?

      4chan has no infrastructure in the UK. I guess they can make UK ISPs block the site, but I doubt the owner cares, and most people who’d want to access 4chan are probably tech savvy enough to figure out a VPN.

    3. ProfPMJ-123 on

      Looks like 4Chan is getting blocked then.

      Won’t make much difference, since I would assume 4Channers will be some of the most VPN savvy people out there.

    5. Separate-Ad-5255 on

      Whilst I do agree that 4Chan is a website which should be categorised in a very grey area.

      There’s a larger problem and If the UK continues like this, no doubt websites will pull together and pull away from the UK.

    6. B23vital on

      4chan is just the start, we need more mainstream sites refusing to bow to the UK government, the more that do this the louder the backlash will get.

    7. RainbowRedYellow on

      I wish other websites would take this approach with our disgusting country, Tell the worthless mildreds at ofcom to shove it up their… Show how unworkable this awful legislation is.

    8. Wise_Old_Can on

      Literally an unenforceable fine. What an embarrassment for the UK especially after Starmer said he wouldn’t inflict his censorship campaign towards the U.S only days prior.

    9. zillapz1989 on

      Hopefully sets a precedent for other tech companies and websites to completely ignore this shambolic law, which as far as I can tell are under no obligation to comply with the laws of a little island nation they don’t even reside in.

    10. Open-Dragonfruit-007 on

      Not a 4chan user but this just makes me want to VPN and use 4chan regularly now. UK laws only apply to UK operations so if there aren’t any UK operations one would think this would make Ofcom realise this is unenforceable.

      The only thing they could do but will most certainly cause the biggest ever “shitstorm” is arrest the owner of 4chan if they holiday in UK/Europe.

    11. BeginningMeaning1988 on

      >be me, want to control the internet. Lol 

      > Tell internet companies what to do. 

      >feels good.

      >internet companies laugh in my face

      >rage 

    12. Weird-Statistician on

      They’ll block it and set a precedent. Then Google will refuse to pay a fine for not blocking a picture of some breasts and the Govt will be painted into a corner. Again.

    14. fuk_ur_mum_m8 on

      If a section of the internet is being blocked, how far away are we from essentially the Chinese model for the internet, where the Government only allow us on sites they deem okay.

    15. Dapperrevolutionary on

      So stupid. It’s been decades and suddenly now 4chan Is a problem. God what useless old fossils are running this crap

    17. geoffgarside on

      Reminds me of all the US law firms going after the likes of Pirate Bay citing US legislation

    19. NucleiSpin on

      Of all the 5hite out there they go for a pi55y site with a green frog lizard thing as its core messenger. Absolutely a generational ‘whataboutthattery’

    20. pandaman777x on

      What jurisdiction does the UK have over an American website?

      Presumably something between bugger all and nothing?

    21. pangapingus on

      lol get rekt britbongs, not running off your infra or within your legal/business system, American sites are not gonna self-censor for yall

    22. 9d0b11cf-3b69-4537-9 on

      The breach and subsequent takedown of the site earlier this year revealed that 4chan has been in something of a maintenance mode and the backend barely touched for the last ten years. It just ticks along.

      As such, is anyone even reading the letter Ofcom sent? If they are, I can only imagine they’re asking “Who’s Ofcom, again?” before balling it up and throwing it in the bin. Ofcom will implement a trivial-to-bypass ISP block and be made to look impotent by a rinky-dink image board.

    24. etherswim on

      Better get set up with VPNs now before the government start completely blocking those sites and making it harder to access.

    25. SpencersCJ on

      And here is the end point of all of this, any website hosted outside of the UK just doesnt need to pay the fines. All webpages at risk of this will just ignore the fines, the UK will treaten to block them through ISPs and then we will hit the point of the UK government just fully censoring any webpage that doesnt pay them.

    26. Caacrinolass on

      Yeah, they are going to have to block sites to make implementing the law even remotely viable. Any site not based in the UK is beyond their reach if the site chooses to ignore this law. Of course Ofcom can’t fine a company without revenue or assets in the UK, and equally obviously the US courts will not allow a foreign government to have jurisdiction over domestic business.

      How well will blocking work? Not very, is my guess. Its not exactly difficult to pirate things from the common “blocked” sources now, just use a mirror. And of course its still a very good time to have shares in VPN companies as that dodges everything.

    28. Budget-Employ-1621 on

      So, Ofcom will just be forced to ban 4chan on ISPs over here then, which most do if you have child safety settings on them…

    29. Agile_Barber_3590 on

      We’re such a failure of a country trying to act like a superpower.

      We’re the yanks little brother who nobody takes seriously.

    30. Intelligent-Day-6976 on

      Is 4chan really a site ofcom want’s to be challenging? I feel there is  something else going on here 

    31. hdhddf on

      lol how stupid is the UK, can you imagine the internet if every country tried to do this. ofcom needs to fuck off and remember its place