Websites censored by Ofcom

BitChute

BitChute.com is a video sharing website that has provided a home for free speech campaigners and right leaning commentators. Something that does not go down well with the UK's internet censors and its government.

The website has decided to counter the authoritarian Online Safety Act by self blocking British users.

BitChute.com is still accessible by British internet users with a VPN.

BitChute explains on a the black screen that meets British viewers:

Due to what we view as ongoing harassment from Ofcom, as well as our unwillingness to cooperate with a regime we view as hostile to our values and principles, we have disabled all remaining comment access entirely for UK video creators.

After careful review and ongoing evaluation of the regulatory landscape in the United Kingdom, we regret to inform you that BitChute will be discontinuing its video sharing service for UK residents.

The introduction of the UK Online Safety Act of 2023 has brought about significant changes in the regulatory framework governing online content and community interactions. Notably, the Act contains sweeping provisions and onerous corrective measures with respect to content moderation and enforcement. In particular, the broad enforcement powers granted to the regulator of communication services, Ofcom, have raised concerns regarding the open-ended and unpredictable nature of regulatory compliance for our platform.

The BitChute platform has always operated on principles of freedom of speech, expression and association, and strived to foster an open and inclusive environment for content creators and audiences alike. However, the evolving regulatory pressures204including strict enforcement mechanisms and potential liabilities204have created an operational landscape in which continuing to serve the UK market exposes our company to unacceptable legal and compliance risks. Despite our best efforts to navigate these challenges, the uncertainty surrounding the OSA's enforcement by Ofcom and its far-reaching implications leaves us no viable alternative but to cease normal operations in the UK.

Dads With Kids

DadsWithKids.co.uk was a parenting forum for Dads. The forum closed on 16th March 2025 when censorship provisions of the Online Dafety Act became live. The website offered the farewell message:

It is with huge sadness that the forum has closed on 16th March 2025 due to the requirements of the new legislation - the Online Safety Act. Former members have moved to Discord.

4Chan

See article from en.wikipedia.org

4chan.org is an anonymous English-language imageboard website. The site hosts boards dedicated to a wide variety of topics, from video games and television to literature, cooking, weapons, music, history, technology, anime, physical fitness, politics, and sports, porn, among others. Registration is not available, except for staff, and users typically post anonymously. 4chan receives more than 22 million unique monthly visitors, of whom approximately half are from the United States.

The website achieved a little notoriety in Donald Trump's first presidential term. The wesbite was identified for providing a voice to 'alt-right' (right leaning) Trump supporters who were otherwise silenced by an alliance of liberal internet companies and mainstream media outlets..

In June 2025 Ofcom announced that it was looking into censoring 4chn.

Ofcom wrote:

Ofcom has launched investigations into whether seven file-sharing services, 4chan and porn provider First Time Videos have failed to comply with their duties under the UK's Online Safety Act. Duties under the Act

The Online Safety Act has introduced new rules to ensure online services take action to protect their UK users, especially children.

Sites that publish their own pornography must already have highly effective age checks in place to stop children accessing this material. Search and user-to-user services -- where people can see content shared by others, including social media -- should have assessed the risk of their UK users encountering illegal content and activity on their platforms, and must now be taking appropriate steps to protect them from it.

As well as engaging with large platforms about their new duties, our dedicated taskforce has been attempting to engage with a number of smaller sites that may present particular risks to users. Today we have opened investigations into a number of these services.

Specifically, we are investigating whether the providers of these services have failed to:

put appropriate safety measures in place to protect UK users from illegal content and activity; complete -- and keep a record of -- a suitable and sufficient illegal harms risk assessment; and respond to a statutory information request.

4chan hasn't made a statement about Ofcom's censorship. The website is still generally available in the UK.

 

In August 2025 Ofcom expanded its investigations

Ofcom wrote:

Ofcoms investigation continues to examine concurrently whether there are reasonable grounds to believe that the provider has failed, or is failing, to comply with the other duties under investigation, including duties to protect its users from illegal content

 

Offsite Comment: Allowing British authorities to demand compliance from virtually any website.

11th June 2025. See article from reclaimthenet.org

Ofcom has set its sights on 4chan, a US-hosted imageboard owned by a Japanese national. The site operates under US law and has no physical infrastructure, employees, or legal registration in Britain. Nonetheless, UK regulators have declared it fair game.

Wherever in the world a service is based if it has 'links to the UK', it now has duties to protect UK users, Ofcom insists.

That phrase, links to the UK, is intentionally vague and extraordinarily expensive, allowing British authorities to demand compliance from virtually any website.

This kind of extraterritorial overreach marks a direct threat to the principle of national sovereignty in internet governance. The UK is attempting to dictate the rules of online speech to foreign companies, hosted on foreign servers, and serving users in other countries, all because someone in Britain might visit their site.

According to Ofcom, 4chan failed to respond to its statutory information requests, making it one of nine services now under formal investigation.

What this law actually does is push platforms, especially smaller or independent ones, out of the UK entirely.

Rather than making the internet safer, the law is creating a digital iron curtain around the UK, where only government-approved content and services remain accessible.

 

In October 2025 Ofcom went one step further and fined 4Chan writing:

Ofcom has determined that 4chan has breached its duty under section 102(8)(a) of the Act to comply with a statutory request for information, on two separate occasions.

We are imposing a fixed penalty of 2£20,000 on 4chan in respect of both breaches. This penalty was set having regard to our Penalty Guidelines.

In addition, 4chan is now required to take immediate steps to comply with section 102(8)(a) by providing the following:

a copy of the written record of its illegal content risk assessment(s) in respect of 4chan.org as required by the first statutory information request; and information specified in the second statutory information request relating to its qualifying worldwide revenue ('QWR').

Should 4chan fail to comply, a daily rate penalty of 2£100 per day will be imposed starting from the day after the date of the Confirmation Decision for either 60 days or until 4chan provides Ofcom with the information outlined above (whichever is sooner).

gab

The US right leaning forum website gab.com has blocked internet users located in Britain since April 2025. UK users can now only see a landing page explaining that UK internet censorship laws are unacceptable to the free speech loving forum. The website explains its actions as follows:

ATTENTION: UK Visitor Detected

The following notice applies specifically to users accessing from the United Kingdom.

Access Restricted by Provider

After receiving yet another demand from the UK's speech police, Ofcom, Gab has made the decision to block the entire United Kingdom from accessing our website.

This latest email from Ofcom ordered us to disclose information about our users and operations. We know where this leads: compelled censorship and British citizens thrown in jail for hate speech. We refuse to comply with this tyranny.

Gab is an American company with zero presence in the UK. Ofcom's demands have no legal force here. To enforce anything in the United States, they'd need to go through a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty request or letters rogatory. No U.S. court is going to enforce a foreign censorship regime. The First Amendment forbids it.

Ofcom will likely try to make an example of us anyway. That's because the UK's Online Safety Act isn't about protecting children. It's about suppressing dissent.

They're welcome to try. The idea that a British regulator can pressure a U.S. company that's IP-blocking the entire UK is as farcical as it is futile. If anything, it proves our point: censorship doesn't work. It only reveals the truth about the censors.

We proudly join platforms like Bitchute in boycotting the United Kingdom. American companies should follow suit. The power of the UK's parliament ends where the First Amendment begins.

The only way to vote against the tyranny of the UK's present regime is to walk away from it, refuse to comply, and take refuge under the impervious shelter of the First Amendment.

The UK's rulers want their people kept in the dark. Let them see how long the public tolerates it as their Internet vanishes, one website at a time.

 

Self blocking is OK with Ofcom who responded in a statement:

The Online Safety Act introduces new rules for providers of online user-to-user, search and pornography services, to help keep people in the UK safe from content which is illegal in the UK, and to protect children from the most harmful content such as pornography, suicide and self-harm material.

Wherever in the world a service is based, if it has links to the UK, it now has duties to protect UK users. This includes having a significant number of UK users, or that the UK is a target market. These rules will also apply to services that are capable of being used by individuals in the UK and which pose a material risk of significant harm to them.

The Act only requires that services take action to protect users based in the UK -- it does not require them to take action in relation to users based anywhere else in the world.

Ofcom believes its flexible approach to risk assessment and mitigation allows all services to take appropriate and proportionate steps to protect UK users from illegal content. Some services might seek to prevent users in the UK from accessing their sites or parts of their sites, instead of complying with the Act's requirements to protect UK users. That is their choice.

If a service restricts UK users' access, that action would need to be effective in order for the service to fall out of scope of the Act. The key test remains whether the service has links to the UK. This will depend on the specific circumstances (including whether it is still targeting UK users, for example, by promoting ways of evading access restrictions). Ofcom would assess whether a service is in scope on a case-by-case basis and, where the Act applies, would consider the service's compliance with the law and, where necessary, use our investigation and enforcement powers.

We recognise the breadth and complexity of the online safety rules and that there is a diverse range of services in scope.

New regulation can create uncertainty and navigating the requirements can be challenging. Ofcom is committed to working with providers to help them comply with the Online Safety Act and protect their users. We have therefore developed a range of tools and resources to make it easier for them to understand -- and comply with -- their obligations. We also recently published a guide to help small services navigate the Online Safety Act.

im.ge

Im.ge is a free Image Hosting. Promotional material reads: 

Upload Image & Share Upload images or photos and share it with friends and family for free. All images or photos are stored forever for free and comes with lifetime storage.

Ofcom opened an investigation in June 2025 saying:

We are investigating whether the providers of these services have failed to:

• put appropriate safety measures in place to protect UK users from illegal content and activity;

• complete -- and keep a record of -- a suitable and sufficient illegal harms risk assessment; and

• respond to a statutory information request.

In October 2025 issued an update:

We have issued the provider of the Im.ge service with a provisional notice of contravention related to whether it has failed to comply with a statutory information request. Ofcom considers that there are reasonable grounds for believing the provider has contravened its duties under section 102(8) of the Act to comply with two requests for information.

Imgur

imgur.com is a US image sharing website. It is used by millions to make and share images such as memes across the web, particularly on Reddit and in online forums.

From the 30th September 2025 Imgur blocked people in the UK from accessing its content. UK users trying to access Imgur are now met with an error message saying content is not available in your region . Also Imgur content shared on, or embedded in, other websites is also no longer showing.

The website seems to be responding to censorship via the data protection censor, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) rather than the more usual UK internet censor Ofcom. A document published by the ICO alongside the launch of its investigation stated that Imgur did not ask visitors to declare their age when setting up an account.

ICO said in a statement:

We are aware of reports that the social media platform Imgur is currently not available in the UK. Imgur's decision to restrict access in the UK is a commercial decision taken by the company.

Earlier this year, as part of an update on our Children's code strategy, we announced an investigation into MediaLab AI Inc (MediaLab). The investigation relates to how MediaLab's Imgur social media platform uses children's information and its approach to age assurance.

Tim Capel, ICO Interim Executive Director - Regulatory Supervision, said:

We reached our provisional findings on this investigation, and we issued a notice of intent to impose a monetary penalty on MediaLab on 10 September 2025.

Our findings are provisional and the ICO will carefully consider any representations from MediaLab before taking a final decision whether to issue a monetary penalty.

We have been clear that exiting the UK does not allow an organisation to avoid responsibility for any prior infringement of data protection law, and our investigation remains ongoing.

Janitor AI

janitorai.com is a chatbot platform where users can create and interact with AI characters for personalized role-playing and conversations.

The website decided to block UK users in July 2025.

Availability as of 01/08/2025

self blocked	UK without VPN	The website decided to block UK users in July 2025 passionately explaining: We have been trying to wrap our heads around the UK's online safety act. when it first passed, i thought okay, some new content moderation rules, we can handle that. turns out i was dead wrong. this is not just content moderation - it is a complete regulatory framework that assumes every platform is a tech giant. The requirements are insane: legal risk assessments that cost more than our entire monthly budget biometric id verification systems (reddit is implementing persona for this which costs $1.5 per person) constant legal review of thousands of pages of guidelines that keep changing the penalties include fines up to £18 million plus personal criminal liability for me and our team. like, actual jail time if ofcom decides we screwed up. we have been drowning in legal documents trying to figure this out. the main law is 250+ pages, the guidance from ofcom is over 3,000 pages, and its all written in the most confusing legal language possible. i kept thinking we would find some reasonable compliance path, or that there would be exemptions for smaller platforms. nope. if you have uk users and any form of user interaction, you get the full regulatory treatment. the uk government talks about wanting to be a tech innovation hub while simultaneously making it impossible for any platform smaller than google to serve uk users. it is completely backwards
available	world UK with VPN	Available outside of the UK Available within the UK via VPN.

Kandi Patterns

kandipatterns.com is a website to view and discuss patterns for making bracelets using pony beads and string.

The website decided to block UK users in July 2025

Availability as of 01/08/2025

self blocked	UK without VPN	The website decided to block UK users in July 2025 citing: If you live in the United Kingdom, this block is the result of new legislation which leaves us temporarily unable to operate in the UK due to the risk of fines. We are required to comply with a long list of demands, some of which are too expensive or complicated to implement for such a small website so we have been left with no choice but to block UK users.
available	world UK with VPN	Available outside of the UK Available within the UK via VPN.

Kiwi Farms

kiwiFarms.st is US web forum that facilitates the discussion and harassment of online figures and communities. Their targets are often subject to organized group trolling and stalking, as well as doxing and real-life harassment.

As of about March 2025, the website self blocks itself to UK users. UK users are presented with a splash screen explaining how Kiwi Farms are refusing to cooperate with Ofcom and how to access the website via VPNs or Tor:

You are accessing this website from the United Kingdom. This is not a good idea.

On March 26th, 2025, Ofcom (the Office of Communications) wrote us demanding from us a plan to implement their orwellian Online Safety Act.

The letter states the UK asserts authority over any website which has a significant number of United Kingdom users. This ambiguous metric could include any site on the Internet, and specifically takes aim at the people using a website instead of the website itself.

The situation in the UK is now so dire I fear for the safety of any user connecting to the Internet from the country.

You are in a speech-hostile country. Protect yourself.

Option A. Use a VPN

Option B. Use Tor

Krakenfiles

krakenfiles.com is a free file sharing website.

Ofcom opened an investigation in June 2025 saying:

We are investigating whether the providers of these services have failed to:

• put appropriate safety measures in place to protect UK users from illegal content and activity;

• complete -- and keep a record of -- a suitable and sufficient illegal harms risk assessment; and

• respond to a statutory information request.

In October 2025 Ofcom closed these investigations as the websites had been blocked to UK Users.

LFGSS

See article from lfgss.com

The owner of a popular cycling forum LFGSS (London Fixed Gear and Single-Speed), has decided to close his business due to the enormous risks and expenses inherent in running a British business due to be suffocated by the misleadingly named Online Safety Act. He explains:

Reading Ofcom's tome of censorship rules and we're done... we fall firmly into scope, and I have no way to dodge it. The act is too broad, and it doesn't matter that there's never been an instance of any of the proclaimed things that this act protects adults, children and vulnerable people from... the very broad language and the fact that I'm based in the UK means we're covered.

The act simply does not care that this site and platform is run by an individual, and that I do so philanthropically without any profit motive (typically losing money), nor that the site exists to reduce social loneliness, reduce suicide rates, help build meaningful communities that enrich life.

The act only cares that is it "linked to the UK" (by me being involved as a UK native and resident, by you being a UK based user), and that users can talk to other users... that's it, that's the scope.

I can't afford what is likely tens of thousand to go through all the legal hoops here over a prolonged period of time, the site itself barely gets a few hundred in donations each month and costs a little more to run... this is not a venture that can afford compliance costs... and if we did, what remains is a disproportionately high personal liability for me, and one that could easily be weaponised by disgruntled people who are banned for their egregious behaviour... I do not see an alternative to shuttering it.

The conclusion I have to make is that we're done... Microcosm, LFGSS, the many other communities running on this platform... the risk to me personally is too high, and so I will need to shutter them all.

On Sunday 16th March 2025 (the last day prior to the Act taking effect) I will delete the virtual servers hosting LFGSS and other communities, and effectively immediately end the approximately 300 small communities that I run, and the few large communities such as LFGSS.

My Blog

knkstriped.net was a Wordpress blog featuring original adult content by independent writer/photographer.  It closed down by August 2025 stating:

I’ve taken my site down because of the UK’s insane war on porn.

If the Online [Un]Safety Act is repealed, I’ll put it back, but for the moment I’m gone.

The delightful Girl On The Net will be hosting some of my content for the time being

Pixie in Jail

PixelJail, a creator who makes BDSM and other kink-related comics and illustration, has now opted to set up their own websites eg pixeljail.com. But even without the burden of conforming to a platforms rules, having ones own website isnt a guarantee of absolute safety. In the UK, where PixelJail lives, the recently implemented Online Safety Act requires that online platforms have strong age checks in place to prevent children from accessing pornographic or harmful content.

When adult creators are regularly forced to find new places for their work, their business overall suffers. I can never get ahead, said PixelJail, a creator who makes BDSM and other kink-related comics and illustrations. I have to stop doing paid work to set up new accounts, backlog posting, pay for new subscriptions or services and other administrative tasks. I had to geoblock my websites in the UK, including my webstore, PixelJail said, meaning they no longer sell their work in their own country

SanctionedSuicide

Sanctioned-Suicide.net is a discussion forum on the subject of suicide. In April 2025 the website published threatening letters from the UK internet censor Ofcom. From 1st July 2025 the website decided to self block UK users.

The website has been controversial for some time for several examples when child suicides have been connected to the website. perhaps it was invitable that it would figure in early Ofcom investigations under censorship powers enabled by the Online Safety Act.

Ofcom harassment

In April 2025, Ofcom announced:

Ofcom has launched an investigation into whether the provider of an online suicide forum has failed to comply with its duties under the UK's Online Safety Act.

This is the first investigation opened into an individual online service provider under these new laws. Specifically, we are investigating whether this provider has failed to:

put appropriate safety measures in place to protect its UK users from illegal content and activity; complete -- and keep a record of -- a suitable and sufficient illegal harms risk assessment; and adequately respond to a statutory information request.

Sanctioned Suicide responded with their own statement:

Here's the situation: On 8 April 2025, we received a formal letter from the UK communications regulator, Ofcom, informing us that they had officially opened an investigation into Sanctioned-Suicide.net under the UK's Online Safety Act 2023. While we typically do not comment on regulatory interactions, we feel it is necessary to inform the community of what is happening and how we are responding.

In their opening letter, Ofcom claims we may have failed to comply with the following obligations under the Online Safety Act:

• Section 9: Conducting and keeping records of an illegal content risk assessment
• Section 10: Taking proactive safety measures to mitigate harm from priority illegal content
• Sections 20 & 21: Providing clear reporting and complaint mechanisms
• Section 23: Maintaining adequate documentation
• Section 102(8): Responding to an information notice

Their justification for opening this investigation is their belief that some UK residents may still be able to access the site, despite ISP-level blocks, and that content on the platform may present a risk of harm to those users.

Our Legal Position: No Jurisdiction

We have made it absolutely clear to Ofcom: Sanctioned-Suicide.net is not within the scope of UK law. Their continued insistence on jurisdiction is legally indefensible and raises serious concerns about regulatory overreach. To clarify:

1. We are a U.S.-based platform. We have no offices, infrastructure, or staff in the UK.
2. We are not commercially active in the UK. We generate no revenue from UK users and do not advertise or market our services there.
3. Access from the UK is already severely restricted, with most major UK ISPs blocking access due to political pressure.
4. We do not target the UK under any meaningful interpretation of the law.

Their standard -- that a site being capable of being accessed in the UK constitutes a jurisdictional link -- is dangerously broad. Under that logic, any site on the global internet could fall under Ofcom's purview, regardless of whether it targets the UK or not. This is not only unsustainable -- it flies in the face of international legal norms and principles of digital sovereignty.

Self blocked in the UK

From 1st July 2025 Sanctioned Suicide decided to block access to UK users; The website explains:

UK Access Block Notice: Beginning July 1, 2025, this site will no longer be accessible from the United Kingdom. This is a voluntary decision made by the site's administrators. We were not forced or ordered to implement this block. If you're located in the UK, we recommend using a VPN to maintain access.

Ofcom responded in October that self blocking was adequate to keep Ofcom from taking further action exceot to keep monitoring the website for compliance.

Spacehey

Spacehey.com is social media site for fans of the now defunct MySpace.

The website decided to self block UK readers in July 2025 to avoid the mountain of ruinous red tape that is required by the Online Safety Act.

Availability as of 01/08/2025

self blocked	UK without VPN	The website decided to self block UK readers in July 2025 to avoid the mountain of ruinous red tape that is required by the Online Safety Act. Spacehey explained the reason: Because of local requirements like age verification on social media for which we currently don't have the resources to comply with.
available	world UK with VPN	Available outside of the UK Available within the UK via VPN.