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If 4chan continues to ignore Ofcom, the forum could be blocked in the UK. And 4chan could face even bigger fines totaling about $23 million or 10 percent of 4chan’s worldwide turnover, whichever is higher. 4chan also faces potential arrest and/or "imprisonment for a term of up to two years," the lawsuit said.

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[-] cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de 63 points 1 month ago

The UK should just block sites that don't comply. They have no business trying to fine US websites.

[-] richardwallass@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 month ago

People should fight for their rights and free speech and make pressure on the gouvernement. Blocking is isolationism.

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[-] Antagnostic@lemmy.world 17 points 1 month ago
[-] pineapplelover@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 month ago

I have never seen this. It is on my list now

[-] tal@lemmy.today 9 points 1 month ago

4chan also faces potential arrest and/or “imprisonment for a term of up to two years,” the lawsuit said.

You don't want to be locked in a small cell with 4chan for two years.

[-] pastermil@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 month ago

"I'm not stuck here with you. You're stuck here with me!"

[-] PrettyFlyForAFatGuy@feddit.uk 8 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

British government fines an American company, based in America, for serving data from American servers that was compliant with American law.

This whole law is complete overreach. It's like banning a book and then getting mad at the author when one of your citizens buys one on holiday and brings it back with them

[-] ArmchairAce1944@discuss.online 2 points 1 month ago

I think Iran should fine the UK just as much for allowing the Satanic verses to be sold since that novel are banned in Iran.

Any argument they give is the same argument why the 4chan shit is laughable.

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[-] sturmblast@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago

This censorship shit is out of control.

[-] ArmchairAce1944@discuss.online 2 points 1 month ago

Damn fucking straight. I hope it starts an privacy movement so big they realize that all the laws passed since 2000 against terrorism were abject failures and repeal all of them.

Canada is trying to pass major surveillance shit on par with the patriot act on steroids and effectively nullify the need for warrants, all in the name of 'strong borders' and anti terrorism even though it literally gives many US owned and operated companies full and complete access to digital information on Canadians, ironically weakening borders in every way.

And for what? What is the terrorism threat? Al-Qaeda was a always a joke, and the fact that 9/11 happened was far more due to a monumental failure of all intelligence services combined and not due to a lack of resources. Terrorist schemes have been thwarted in the past without the need for extensive surveillance... and most plots are still thwarted primarily by informants and insiders speaking to authorities. The whole 'we need to be super proactive ' has yielded shit results.

Most of the stuff that they claim was 'prevented proactively ' was literally entrapment. They found some mentally ill and/or lonely people who would have done nothing on their own, but ended up being goaded into stupid crap when undercover agents flirted with them, encouraged them, and even offered weapons and explosives for them to use, and if they agreed... well, that's when they nabbed them. No terrorism would have occurred if agents didn't do shit.

Have you ever wondered why so many people are highly distrustful of people talking about doing violent shit? Fed posting? Its because agents have such a long ass history of doing that that you cannot tell who is and who isn't a Fed.

[-] Kolanaki@pawb.social 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

4chan also faces potential arrest and/or "imprisonment for a term of up to two years," the lawsuit said.

I wanna see how a website would be sent to jail.

[-] biggeoff@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 month ago

Clearly they're after the notorious hacker known as 4chan

[-] ChaoticEntropy@feddit.uk 2 points 1 month ago

All 4 of them face charges.

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[-] sleen@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 month ago

I see you never downloaded a car before.

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[-] nucleative@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

This is a case of stupid laws that still don't understand the internet (35+ years in to wide use, mofos)

If an http GET request initiated from country A traverses routers and wires around the globe to grab some data from a server in country B, then we have to accept that the owners of the server are not "operating in country A" and in fact the user in country A is responsible for import.

If some laws in country A have a problem with this, then they should unplug their internet wires at the border, or at least learn how to use them and/or govern their citizens.

All that is tongue in cheek to say they can fuck right off.

[-] General_Effort@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

If some laws in country A have a problem with this, then they should unplug their internet wires at the border, or at least learn how to use them and/or govern their citizens.

What used to be called The Great Firewall of China. It used to be unthinkable for western countries.

You can't blame this on old people. This is only happening now that the Boomers are on the way out. People who sent international letters or made international phone calls were aware that they were communicating with a different country with different laws. I think we are seeing this now, because now we have people who experience the internet as something happening on their own phone, at their location.

[-] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 month ago

The boomers are not on their way out. We have the exact same politicians in power that we had 30 fucking years ago.

[-] General_Effort@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

UK cabinet is mainly GenXers. I didn't count exactly, but Boomers still seem to outnumber Millennials. Definitely on the way out, though.

I wouldn't mind the politicians from 30 years ago, who stayed away from this bullshit.

Funnily enough the CIA (yes, the CIA) was largely involved in keeping the internet a free and open space for all, heck they even contributed encryption algorithms to keep data private and such ...

The reason why the free internet existed for so long was because it was a big ideological project for the US. (the internet is the space of all ideas and as such represents the platonic/christian concept of heaven). It's only now ending because it's served its purpose. The people have exchanged ideas worldwide, and that only needs to happen twice, similarly to how you can only infect yourself with the same virus once (because the second infection does way less impact), you can only infect yourself with the same idea once. So, once the worldwide ideas are exchanged, the internet serves very little purpose anymore.

[-] echodot@feddit.uk 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Yeah it's a stupid law and they were told it wouldn't work by industry experts. But the politicians that were in power when all this was first been decided were Conservatives and therefore arrogant and of the opinion that if they don't like something, it's realities responsibility to reconfigure itself.

Then Labour got in and for some reason implemented the stupid law anyway despite having heard none of the consultations, and of course now it turns out that the consultations told them not to do it. Now I'm sure the industry experts would have been ignored anyway but Labour look really daft now.

They have basically accepted that this law is unworkable and is basically going to be ignored by everyone, but they still have to go through all of the pantomime of trying to enforce it. I'm sure eventually they'll quietly kill it because the whole thing has been such an embarrassment for them.

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[-] Ultraword@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 month ago

The global push for censorship is accelerating and not nearly enough people are woke to it.

[-] MrSulu@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 month ago

So then.... Potential arrest and imprisonment for 4chan for no proven damage. Meanwhile, Trump can visit the King.

[-] pHr34kY@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Imagine running a website for 20 years, changing absolutely nothing, and one day you're being targeted because someone else on the other side of the planet changed something at their end.

Tell them to piss off.

They'll come after your phpbb instance next.

[-] CallateCoyote@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

“Block us then. We’re not paying your fines and you’ll never arrest us as we’ll never step foot in your country. Get fucked.” That’s about the response I’d have I think… attached with a photo of tubgirl or something for the classic lawls.

[-] nuxi@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

4chan's actual legal response to this can be summarized as "We are incorporated in Delaware which has not been subject to UK law since 1783. See the Treaty of Paris".

[-] Rooty@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

Will the notorious hacker known as 4chan finally get his comeuppance?

[-] ImgurRefugee114@reddthat.com 2 points 1 month ago

They'll never control the hacker known as 4chan

[-] nevemsenki@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

If you're ok with this then imagine your local lemmy instance getting fined by China/Qatar/Thailand/etc for posting something breaking their laws.

[-] ArmchairAce1944@discuss.online 2 points 1 month ago

They have no way of making them pay.

[-] nutsack@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 month ago

they don't have that kind of money they can't pay that shit are you nuts

[-] nagaram@startrek.website 2 points 1 month ago

Probably why they didn't do it in the first place.

They barely pay for moderation. Who is going to pay for that survey? And also why would they? Obviously most of the people on that site are under 18. That's when I used it.

What other demographic clicks the horny ads they run?

[-] pastermil@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 month ago

And they think 4chan ever complied with anything. How adorable!

[-] Gemini24601@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

Is it even possible for Ofcom to legally fine 4chan for these issues? How does a company in the UK fine a US company?

[-] WALLACE@feddit.uk 1 points 1 month ago

It works the same way they can fine domestic businesses: Pay up or we'll stop you from doing any more business in this country.

In the context of a website like 4chan that means pay the fine or get blocked by every UK based ISP.

[-] Tattorack@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

Oh no! That one country out of all the other ones will be the biggest loss ever!

Anyway, about these things called VPNs.

[-] village604@adultswim.fan 1 points 1 month ago

I don't think that would deter any of their user base.

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this post was submitted on 14 Oct 2025
117 points (98.3% liked)

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