Comment by mytailorisrich

15 days ago

I am very skeptical that the Online Safety Act forces community forums and wikis to close. By and large the Act forces forums to have strong moderation and perhaps manual checks before publishing files and pictures uploaded by users, and that's about it.

Likewise, I suspect that most geoblocks are out of misplaced fear not actual analysis.

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mytailorisrich

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ijk  15 days ago

It has caused many community forums to close, past tense.

Many cited the uncertainty about what is actually required, the potential high cost of compliance, the danger of failing to correctly follow the rules they're not certain about, and the lack of governmental clarity as significant aspects of their decision to close.

The fear may be misplaced, but the UK government has failed to convince people of that.

  • mytailorisrich  15 days ago

    I don't think it is so much a failure of the government to communicate as a vocal opposition to this law that has focussed on and amplified the maximum penalties and caused fear.

    Now, I don't think this is a positive law but it is not armageddon, either, and objectively many reactions do seem overblown. Time will tell.

  • hnlmorg  15 days ago

    It was misplaced but the UK government has a long history of incompetence when it comes to legislation regarding the use of technology. So I cannot blame people being erring on the side of caution.

    I mean, it’s not like this particular piece of legislation isn’t stupid to begin with. So I cannot blame people for assuming the worst.

freeone3000  15 days ago

“Strong moderation” and “manual checks” and pro-active age verification are exactly the burdens that would prevent someone from running a small community forum.

  • mytailorisrich  15 days ago

    You do not need age verification in the vast majority of cases.

    Moderation is part and parcel of running forums and all platforms and software provide tools for this, it's nothing new. If someone is not prepared to read submissions or to react quickly when one is flagged then perhaps running a forum is too much of a commitment for them but I would not blame the law.

    In fact I believe that forum operators in the UK already got in legal trouble in the past, long before the Online Safety Act, because they ignored flagging reports.