The Online Safety Act for forum and blog owners

https://successfulsoftware.net/2025/07/29/the-online-safety-act-for-forum-owners/

by hermitcrab • 12 months ago

4 25 12 months ago

successfulsoftware.net

hermitcrab7• 12 months ago

TLDR:

If you:

* have a forum or blog that allows readers to see each other's comments

And

* are based in the UK or have users in the UK

Then (the UK government thinks that) the UK online safety act applies to you and you could be fined £18 million+ for ignoring it.

yawpitch4• 12 months ago

… though with the caveat that the body that’s empowered to do the enforcing, Ofcom, is required to factor size of the surface and risk of harm into ensuring that enforcement is proportional.

If you’re a blog with a small number of UK users, you’re not obviously appealing to children, and you haven’t allowed people to upload arbitrary images / video / files to your other users, then the realistic odds are you’ll be at no more actual risk here than you are / were from the cookie law or the GPDR.

This law sucks for so many reasons, and is inane, but the risk to micro-bloggers of £18M+ fines is, in reality, nil.

easytiger2• 12 months ago

This law sucks for so many reasons, and is inane, but the risk to micro-bloggers of £18M+ fines is, in reality, nil.

A little naivety methinks. You should say rather

... the risk to micro-bloggers of £18M+ fines is, in reality, nil. ...should the bloggers not publish opinions contrary to the state and its current objectives.

hermitcrab7• 12 months ago

and you haven’t allowed people to upload arbitrary images / video / files to your other users

I believe it applies equally to text as to images / video / files.

This law sucks for so many reasons, and is inane, but the risk to micro-bloggers of £18M+ fines is, in reality, nil.

Agreed. But small companies could face substantial fines. Whether any small companies are prosecuted remains to be seen.

jalapenos4• 12 months ago

Classic case of how you move from "rule of law" to "rule of man" - illegalise everything, then selectively enforce the law - usually when the topic of the forum gets deemed unsavoury to the ruling class.

oneeyedpigeon4• 12 months ago

That caveat sounds incredibly vague and subjective. It doesn't appear to make it impossible for Ofcom to levy a fine of £18m at a free hobbyist site that has a forum. Taken to its limits, this Act makes big, bug chunks of the internet inaccessible to UK citizens.

jalapenos4• 12 months ago

Shorter TL;DR:

If you live in the UK, don't.

hermitcrab7• 12 months ago

That is a decision each company has to make. Realistically, if you are small company, with no employees in the UK, then it is unlikely to be enforceable against you.

jjgreen• 12 months ago

Just geoblock the UK.

oneeyedpigeon4• 12 months ago

As a resident of the UK... I agree. This is probably the best option.

hilbert42• 12 months ago

For those of us outside the UK that makes sense. The UK acts as if it's still master of its 19th C. Empire when for much of the world it's falling further into irrelevancy.

Only when its citizens realize this and ditch all the supercilious rules and nonsense that's gripped the country for decades will it recover and join the world again.

I say that as one who once owned a UK passport.

hermitcrab7• 12 months ago

Unfortunately, Britain exceptionalism is alive and well. The sun never sets on the British Empire, we won WWII etc. Lots of nostalgia for a perfect Britain that never was. The result: jingosim and Brexit.

I say that as one who currently owns a UK passport.

mytailorisrich2• 12 months ago

For those outside the UK what makes sense is just ignore this law. It will not cause any issues.

The Online Safety Act for forum and blog owners

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