Comment by vasco
7 months ago
Also nobody is going after the small spaces, because they don't even know they exist. And when they do they can be shut down I guess, if there really is misunderstanding. I don't get preemptively doing it other than giving up after a long duty of almost 30 years and using this as excuse. At least pass them to someone else that won't care about the liability.
Shut down and fined up to £18m.
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/online-safety/illegal-and-harmful-c...
So, I fully understand why someone would rather shut down their site rather than potentially deal with the legal fallout. Even if the end result is "just getting shut down", that will come after a significant amount of legal troubles, and likely money spent dealing with them.
> when they do they can be shut down I guess, if there really is misunderstanding.
The fear some have is not misunderstandings, but disgruntled types (the sort of people who blow up over a perfectly reasonable moderation decision) and common garden variety griefers reporting things to cause inconvenience. I know people who have in the past run forums and had to put up with spurious reports to their ISP/host or even on one occasion local law enforcement. If someone did this it would likely go nowhere in the end but not before causing much stress and perhaps cost via paying for legal advice.
> I don't get preemptively doing it other than giving up after a long duty of almost 30 years and using this as excuse.
Having been involved less directly with that sort of admin & moderation work I can see this change being the final straw after putting up with the people of the internet for years. Calling it “just an excuse” seems rather harsh.
> At least pass them to someone else that won't care about the liability.
Depending on the terms people agreed to when signing up and posting, passing on the reigns might not be nearly as legally/morally clear-cut as several in these comments are assuming.
Some poeple just don't like to be illegal.